Factors influencing foundation phase rural teachers’ understanding and practices in selecting inclusive teaching strategies

Background: It is arguable that teachers’ understanding of the roles of various stakeholders and their need to sometimes assume some of these roles influenced how they practice inclusive education that results in influencing the choice of strategies that they will employ in the classroom.Aim: This article presents factors influencing how foundation phase rural teachers practised inclusion during teaching and learning in ordinary classrooms.Setting: The study was conducted in Limpopo, South Africa, from four selected schools.Methods: Four foundation phase teachers were purposefully selected to participate in the study. Direct observations and supplementary data through individual interviews were employed to elicit data from in-service foundation phase rural teachers.Results: The findings from the data revealed that teachers’ current understanding of inclusive pedagogy is influenced by knowledge of inclusive pedagogical practices, professional development, reflective teaching and planning of lessons contents, which was found to be inadequate, whilst the absence of teacher development through workshops and lack of parental involvement and teachers being in loco-parentis is found to be another contributing factor.Conclusion: The study supports that foundation phase rural teachers should be capacitated and empowered through consistent teacher development workshops. Parents also need to be empowered on their support role in order to fully realise inclusive pedagogy in rural classrooms. Finally, the study recommends further research on teacher development and teachers being in loco-parentis in rural foundation phase classrooms.