Strategies for Inclusive Education in Zimbabwe’s Teachers’ Colleges

This book articulates perceptions, practices and experiences guiding the implementation of Inclusive Education in the teachers' colleges in Zimbabwe. The major aim of the book is to enhance educational equity and equality through suggesting more plausible strategies that draw from empirical evidence; hence, the book is based on a study done in Zimbabwe. Four research questions guided the study. The interpretivist paradigm, qualitative methodology and multiple case studies guided this study. Homogenous purposeful sampling and snowballing techniques were adopted to draw up a sample of eight (8) key informants and seventeen (17) participants. Data were generated using the researcher as a primary instrument, face-to-face interviews, direct observation and document analysis. The major findings were that inclusive education is being implemented in teachers' colleges in Zimbabwe but is being affected by many gaps. These were the shortage of resources, lack of skilled lecturing staff, negative attitudes by the lecturer‟'s inaccessible physical environment, and inflexible teacher education curriculum. The study concluded that the absence of a guiding inclusive education policy has led to differences in the implementation process in the colleges. This is because there is no specific Inclusive Education Policy except for the Education Act and other circulars. The book recommended the need for the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Technology Development (MHTEISTD) and the University of Zimbabwe, Department of Teacher Education (DTE) to design a specific National Inclusive Education Policy to guide and direct inclusive education practices in teachers' colleges and a flexible curriculum that accommodates all students with their diverse needs. The book came up with an Inclusive Teachers' College Framework for implementing inclusive education that could be adopted by teachers' colleges in Zimbabwe.