What is it about?
The study focuses on the services, professionals, challenges and ways to support learners with ID to enhance their education and social inclusion. The study occurred in Ghana and focused on the views of teachers and parents. It identified factors that impact the effective provision of special needs services and how the education and social inclusion of learners with ID can be improved.
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Why is it important?
Effective special needs services can enhance the education and inclusion of learners with intellectual disability (ID), who are often marginalised and excluded in society. Factors such as negative attitudes, inadequate personnel, and limited funds impacted their provision of special needs services for learners with ID. Our findings show that increased personnel, adequate funding, active parent engagement, together with positive attitudes and a mindset change from all stakeholders, are needed to improve the education and social inclusion of learners with ID. Thus, positive practice cultures can foster quality services and instruction for learners with ID in segregated or inclusive settings.
Perspectives
This paper especially gave parents an opportunity to speak about their daily experiences raising and educating a child with ID and how they navigate the attending challenges. It was humbling to know and learn firsthand parents' dreams for their children and how they feel that the government and society can support them. I hope the government and its agencies, especially the ministries of education and social services, use insights from this paper to inform their policies on learners with ID.
Dr Francis R. Ackah-Jnr
Griffith University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Transforming minds, attitudes and practice cultures in special needs services provision and education of children with intellectual disability in Ghana: A pragmatic epistemic study, Future in Educational Research, May 2025, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/fer3.70004.
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