Exploring Primary School Educators’ Perceptions and Enactments of Inclusive Education for Disabled Learners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The field of special education in Saudi Arabia has witnessed much recent attention from policymakers and academic researchers attempting to reform the integration of disabled learners in public education. However, some Saudi scholars remain sceptical about this education reform due to the challenges facing the Saudi inclusive education mandate in practice. Saudi scholars’ concerns frequently related to school educators' attitudinal, perceptual and pedagogic practices. The focus of this study was to explore how General Education Teachers (n=8), Special Educational Needs Teachers (n=8), and Headteachers (n=4) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia understand disability and inclusion. Another focus of this research study is to develop a nuanced understanding of how school educators enacted Saudi inclusion policies in everyday school practice. The social model of disability and the policy-enactment theory are the theoretical underpinnings of this research, which adopted an interpretivist paradigm and a qualitative methodology and utilised ethnographic methods for data collection. Interviews, observations and fieldnotes data were analysed using a thematic approach. The data revealed that educators’ perceptions of disability remained within the individual model of disability and that there was overwhelming reluctance to enact the contemporary Saudi inclusion (integration) policy mandate regarding the Saudi Rights of People with Disabilities (RPD 2022), Saudi Disability Welfare Law (DWL 2000), as well as Saudi educational policies concerning the inclusion of learners, categorised as SN in the Regulatory Guidance for Special Education (Ministry of Education 2015a) and the Regulatory Procedures for Special Education (Ministry of Education 2015b) documents. The overwhelming perception of disability as impairment among participants in this research study aligned with the traditional Saudi policy rhetoric, which continues to position disability based on the individual model, despite the Saudi ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD 2006). Locating disability within the individual model was related to the shortcomings of training and resources offered for mainstream headteachers and education teachers, as well as the constraints of the Saudi-prescribed curriculum and the overwhelming emphasis on categorisation as a means for educational support – leaving little room for educators to promote inclusive pedagogy in schools.