MsSavini Tennakoon

Savini's current PhD thesis is titled  “Ready or Not? A National survey to investigate teacher attitudes, beliefs and experiences, and their influence on teacher self-efficacy to undertake inclusive education in Sri Lanka.”

Below is the abstract to Savini's research: 

“Ready or Not? A National survey to investigate teacher attitudes, beliefs and experiences, and their influence on teacher self-efficacy to undertake inclusive education in Sri Lanka.”

Abstract

Inclusive education, a concept fraught with great contestation, has become a dominant global educational discourse, beginning in the global north to combat segregated special schooling and has now developed into a broader project that addresses greater learner diversity, promoting the human right to education and democratic schooling. Inclusive education has travelled to the global south, influencing education systems and research in the global south, which predominantly investigates teacher attitudes, perceptions and challenges to inclusive education. This research, based on the context of a sample of Sri Lankan teachers, builds on understanding of teacher attitudes and perceptions around inclusive education in Sri Lanka and investigates teachers’ self-efficacy to undertake inclusive practice, whilst examining the enablers and challenges that teachers face towards inclusion. The research also attempts to gain an understanding of current practices that teachers engage in to implement inclusion successfully.

 Drawing on a mixed-methods design involving a national teacher survey gathering 129 responses and 15 semi-structured interviews, the sample included teachers across all nine provinces of Sri Lanka, focusing on different government schools and international schools. Positioned within the broader sociocultural, historical and educational context of Sri Lanka, the research critically examines how concepts such as inclusive education travel to nations such as Sri Lanka and reposition themselves. The research presents a critical examination of how post-colonial nations such as Sri Lanka attempt to re-write their trajectories, reformulate their identity, and negotiate their place within the increasingly globalised educational landscape, placed within complex realities shaped by colonial legacies, geopolitical tensions, economic crisis, natural disasters, and uneven education reform drives.

The teachers of this sample predominantly reflected a charity model and medicalised model of disability and an understanding of inclusive education through the lens of special education, expressing moderately positive attitudes towards inclusive education. However, the Teacher Efficacy in Inclusive Practice Scale (TEIP) data indicate low levels of perceived self-efficacy to engage in inclusive practice, suggesting that attitudes do not always translate to practice without the necessary conditions. Teachers report many challenges, working amidst increasing examination pressures, rigid curriculum expectations, and a lack of infrastructure and resourcing. The research data revealed that teachers worked without the necessary professional knowledge and a nationally mediated policy around inclusion. Without the necessary structural and systemic support, inclusive education became the responsibility of teachers to enact in isolation. To mitigate the challenges to inclusive education, teachers reported enablers such as supportive school leadership with a collective view of inclusion, the ability to collaborate with teachers and other professionals, and the support of shadow teachers/TAs as helpful in addressing the barriers to inclusive practice. Ongoing in-service and pre-service professional learning and the need to experience inclusive practice were identified as necessities that will aid teachers.

The study draws many conclusions, including the need to rethink the understanding of inclusive education to address wider learner identities and to acknowledge the complex interplay of intersecting factors that shape and compound educational disadvantage. The research recommends rethinking schooling, pedagogy, and assessment to fit the needs of all learners. By drawing on Sri Lanka’s inherent tradition of community and collective responsibility, the thesis proposes the strengthening of collective efficacy among teachers and schools. Wide practice-policy gaps should be addressed, and the necessary findings and resources should be provided to schools to bring policy envisioning to reality so that ALL schools in Sri Lanka can travel to a collective goal towards inclusion. Finally, the thesis advocates for a southern-oriented reconceptualisation of inclusive education that considers the distinctive historical, economic, structural, and cultural tensions, and the lived experiences of its communities, that shape the enactment of inclusive education across nations of the global south, including Sri Lanka.