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Contribution of Ordinary School Textbooks to Accommodate Diversities in South African ClassroomsDeirdre Kruger, Sonja Groenewald. The draft document of the National Curriculum Statement (2003) of the Department of Education in South Africa promotes an inclusive approach regarding the quality education of all learners, thus including provision for diversities of learners. The National Curriculum Statement was guided by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the Education White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education, which both aim to set right injustices created earlier by apartheid. The National Curriculum Statement states explicitly that the new National Curriculum will provide for all learners with barriers to learning as opposed to their previous exclusion from ordinary education or main-streaming by default. Research has shown that teachers need training to deal with the variety of barriers that learners may exhibit. The authors pioneered the concept of including the training of educators and learners to accommodate barriers to learning as part of the learning support material (textbooks, including workbooks and answer books). An exposition of the training programme illustrates how the training of educators is included in the Answer books or Practitioner’s Guide. The Workbook contains educational material to help learners to recognise barriers and support those of their peers who experience barriers to learning. Examples of the material used to educate learners are included in the paper.
Presenters  Deirdre Kruger
(South Africa)
Senior Lecturer in Education Department of Further Teacher Education Faculty of Education University of South Africa Deirdré Krüger resides in Pretoria, South Africa. She developed an interest in diversities growing up with a brother who was neurologically impaired and has since passed away. She began her career as a teacher at a special school and later worked for the Educational Support Services, assisting learners at various schools while furthering her studies as educational psychologist. She is married to a detective in the South African Police Service. Her interests include legal and medical studies as well as pet-facilitated therapy.
Sonja Groenewald
(South Africa)
OBE Publishers
Keywords
(30 min. Conference Paper,
English)
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