The incongruence between what inclusive education policies mandate and practice is one of the shortcomings in the implementation of inclusive practices for the benefit of learners experiencing different barriers to learning. Although institutions of higher learning have committed themselves to preparing pre-service teachers for inclusive practices in which learner support is central, significant gaps remain in the effective realisation of these commitments. learners experiencing barriers to learning still account for the highest dropout rates due to continued marginalisation and exclusion that keep them on the periphery of meaningful learning experiences. The aim of this study was to examine how professional learning communities can be used to explore the extent to which learner support curriculum prepares pre-service teachers for the application of learner support in real-life situations. Participatory action learning and action learning (PALAR) was used as a design in this study within a transformative paradigm. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 25 learner support pre-service teachers and 5 learner support lecturers to form a professional learning community. Photovoice was used as a data generation method and ShowEd was used as a method to analyse data. Findings revealed 1) uncertainties among pre-service teachers regarding their preparedness to apply learner support theory in practice; 2) the need to better align inclusive education policy with the curriculum to meaningfully inform practice; and 3) the importance of integrating a service-learning component into the curriculum to foster social competencies required when working with learners of diverse learning abilities.

Authors:
Pateka Pamella Jama, North-West University, South Africa
Rosa Modiba, North-West University, South Africa
Lesetja Molala, North-West University, South Africa
Omphile Madiba, North-West University, South Africa
Appolonia Masunungure, North-West University, South Africa

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Pateka Pamella Jama specialises in inclusive education and learner support. She leads a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project with four colleagues focusing on inclusive education and effective learner support practices

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.Linkedin.com/in/PatekaPamellaJama/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchGate.net/profile/PatekaPamellaJama

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