An Organizational Learning Study on the Inclusive Practices in Elementary Schools from Educators’ Perceptions in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Abstract Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that embraced inclusion policies to give students with disabilities the right to be educated equally at least in restrictive settings with their typically developing peers. Within the context of increasing national and international emphasis on inclusive education of students with disabilities, inclusive schools in Saudi Arabia faced difficulties in implementing the inclusion policies effectively. This quantitative research focused on the factors influencing the insufficient implementation of inclusion policies within elementary public schools in Riyadh City, the Capital of Saudi Arabia. It explored the understanding, knowledge, difficulties, and the required interventions to foster the implementation of inclusion policies through the perceptions of teachers who work day by day with students with disabilities in inclusive education settings. Teachers were chosen regarding their daily interactions with students with disabilities, so their observations and deep experiences in the field of special education could give precise information about inclusion education. This study adopted the organizational learning theory to examine the potential factors influencing the current implementations of inclusion policies into the four domains of the organization at the school level. The positive paradigm and the transformative paradigm were taken on to collect quantitative data from the participants through online surveys. A key finding was that teachers lacked the knowledge and understanding of inclusive education necessary for effective education for students with disabilities. This arguably had affected their attitudes and unconstructively influenced their attitudes towards the inclusive education of students with disabilities in their schools. Moreover, professional development for school staff, relationships between parents and school, human support, curriculum, teaching strategies, assessment, legislation, administrative matters, number of students in the classroom, and the school infrastructure were identified as factors that could act as barriers to implementing inclusion effectively. The study ended with utilizing its findings and previous literature to develop recommendations for future practices that included how to support teachers’ and school staff readiness for inclusion, improve the practice of teachers in inclusive classrooms, improve the school culture, and improve environmental factors to implement inclusion professionally. This study contributed to the knowledge of inclusive education by exploring the issues surrounding the implementation of students with learning difficulties in the Saudi context.