Investigating demand for senior high school mathematics teachers and their preparedness to implement an inclusive education mathematics curriculum

Abstract

The study investigated Senior High School (SHS) mathematics teachers’ demand and preparedness to implement an inclusive education mathematics curriculum. The procedure involved a cross sectional survey that used a structured online questionnaire to elicited information on the demand for SHS mathematics teachers and their preparedness to implement an inclusive education mathematics curriculum. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was employed with a sample of mathematics teachers from 195 senior high schools in then 10 political regions of the country, selected conveniently and purposefully to complete a questionnaire designed using Google Forms (an online survey authoring software). This was followed by interview with 10 mathematics teachers from the 4 GES school placement categories. The study revealed that demand for mathematics teachers in senior high schools exceed supply of mathematics teachers and the existing supply have distributional imbalances because while schools in categories B and C have more mathematics teachers, those in category D have very few mathematics teachers. It was also revealed that mathematics teachers in senior high schools are inadequately prepared to implement inclusive education mathematics curriculum in that most of the teachers’ awareness of inclusive education concepts and practices is low. Approximately 59% of the mathematics teachers sparingly use inclusive education strategies in their mathematics classrooms. It is therefore recommended that various stakeholders of education should put measures in place to organize training on inclusive mathematics education to upgrade in-service mathematics teachers’ knowledge on inclusivity. Also, mathematics teacher education programmes should be reviewed to include inclusive mathematics education concepts and practices so that mathematics teachers from various institutions would be equipped to practice inclusivity in their mathematics classroom.