Teachers’ attitude towards the inclusion of children in street situations in mainstream education in Kampala District, Central Uganda

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number four target five seeks to eliminate all forms of discrimination in education for marginalized groups including children in vulnerable situations like those in street situations. Inclusion of vulnerable children into mainstream education has not been sufficiently studied. This study assessed teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of children in street situations in mainstream education. Adopting convergent-parallel mixed method research design. A total of 264 teachers were randomly selected from 40 public primary schools in Kampala district. Additionally, a purposive sampling method was used to select nine children in street situations who had dropped out of school, and five representatives from governmental and non-governmental organizations. The purpose of these selections was to gather insights into teachers' attitudes towards the inclusion of children in street situations into mainstream education. Qualitative data was generated using semi- structured interviews and analyzed thematically. Quantitative data was generated using questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. This research observed ethical principles and trustworthiness. Quantitative findings revealed that teachers’ attitude (F (3, 259) = 0.807, P > 0.05) was insignificant hence was not a strong predictor for educational inclusion of children in street situations. Qualitative findings revealed that teachers’ attitudes do not anticipate educational access to children in street situations. Also, there were mixed reactions regarding teachers’ attitude as either negative or positive towards engaging learners from the street in the mainstream classroom. The study concluded that teachers’ attitude poorly predicted inclusion of children in street situations in mainstream education and a total of 99.1% of the variation in inclusive education can be explained by other variables or factors other than teachers’ attitude. The study recommended that the Government could provide education accessible to children in streets situations. Additionally, there is need for doing further research to assess the significance of teachers’ attitudes towards the engagement of learners from the streets in schools and classrooms after they have been initiated into inclusive education. The findings are significant to the Government and teachers in planning and policy formulation for inclusivity of children in street situations in accessing equitable quality education for all provided in the mainstream education.