Challenges Facing Pupils and Staff at Botswana Community Junior Secondary Schools – the Student Teachers’ Perspective.

Abstract

After a brief discussion of the Botswana context, this chapter analyses data gathered from pre-service teachers on teaching practice in Botswana junior secondary schools (JSS) as part of their teaching practice assignment for their Special Needs Education course at Molepolole College of Education (MCE), a college of education found 60km outside of the capital city, Gaborone. The assignment guides the pre-service teachers in considering the support needs of their classes and of particular individuals in those classes, as well as an examination of the response of the school to these children in terms of attitudes, methods, resources, structures and policies. This chapter draws upon their collective feedback and analyzes it using quantitative and qualitative methods in order to give an overview of the sorts of challenges to teaching and learning that exist in Botswana JSS’s which operate in a policy framework that is broadly aimed at being inclusive. Issues around identification, teacher attitude, skills and knowledge, and the importance of taking into account cultural contexts are highlighted.