THE VIEWS OF EDUCATORS ON SCHOOL INCLUSION FOR CHILD VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Abstract

A child who is the victim of domestic violence may, among other problems, be hampered in his or her school performance. Studies have shown that some of these children require Special Education. As part of a study of school performance of children who have suffered domestic violence, their teachers and school principals were invited to take part, with the aim of investigating the educators' concepts of the school inclusion movement. Eighteen teachers and ten school principals took part in the study. Each participant responded, in their respective schools, to a semi-structured interview with questions relating to the objective of the study. The results indicate that the educators, in general, particularly the teachers, had a superficial knowledge of practices of inclusion in schools, and of the terminology "special educational needs". However, all the educators were unanimous in expressing a need for in-service training to deal with students with Special Educational needs.