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.
