Abstract
There is a common debate on whether the role players in our South African school system have been trained sufficiently to drive the implementation of inclusive education. The focus has been placed mostly on teachers, who in this study were part of the School Based Support Team (SBST). Even though these teachers are not equipped with any specialists in their team they are still expected to satisfy all support needs at the school site. According to policy, the SBST comprises of a group of teachers, members of the School Management Team (SMT), the Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) representative, safety and security personnel (DBE, 2014). Furthermore, this team also needs to comprise of other professionals such as audiologists, psychologists, , counsellors, remedial experts, HIV/nutrition representatives, a learner and a parent appointed by the school to provide support in the school, may form part of the team (DBE, 2014). The SBST’s experience of their role in supporting learners with receptive and expressive language disorders has been greatly influenced by the limited support and guidance offered by the DBE. Other challenges include insufficient provision of resources, inadequate knowledge about the Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) policy (DBE, 2014), contextual factors and their understanding of receptive and expressive language. This study consisted of one focus group interview that involved twelve members of the SBST, of whom ten were female teachers ranging from the ages of 27–55 and two male teachers aged 27 and 39...
M.A. (Educational Psychology)