Inclusive Education? Disability, Culture, Teaching and Classroom Management in Libya

Inclusive education is a recent phenomenon in the education system in Libya. It is about giving equal educational opportunities to all students, whether with disabilities or, not in the mainstream school or classroom. Schools are considered as social institutions that should endeavour to enhance all children’s lives through appropriate teaching and learning practices. However, the school culture, which is generally defined as ‘how things are done here’ is vital for the promotion of inclusive education. The aim of this study were to explore teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards inclusive education practice in supporting children with disabilities in Libya taking into account the findings of the General People’s Committee of Education report (GPCE,2008). Teachers appeared to play a vital role in enhancing inclusive education through their practices.
In order to achieve this aim, the study includes a focused literature review of areas including inclusive education, disability and school culture. Given the nature of this research an interpretive epistemological position was adopted. This study adopts qualitative analysis to collect and analyse the data and present the findings. Content analysis was used for analysing qualitative data gathered via semi-structured interviews. A total of 36 interviews were conducted, with 12 teachers from special schools, 12 teachers from primary schools and 12 teachers from secondary schools.
Results from the qualitative data indicated that teachers support inclusive education, however, they had reservations on the inclusion of students with severe disabilities. Several factors were identified to influence teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion. The most common factors were the severity of disability that the students had, inadequate training of teachers on teaching students with disabilities, inadequate government funding, lack of specialised resource personnel, lack of appropriate equipment and resources to support students and teachers in the teaching and learning process. Limited commitment from the Ministry of Education and limited participation and consultation of teachers on policy and curriculum design were also identified as contributing factors for non-inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream schools.