Dr Chiaka Patience Denwigwe & Dr Philips Okpechi
Abstract
The study investigated teachers’ perceptions on mainstreaming of inclusion in teacher development programme for equity in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. Five research questions were posed to guide this study. The descriptive survey design was adopted. Through a simple random sampling technique, a sample of 400 secondary school teachers was selected from a population of 2,220 secondary school teachers in the Zone. The instrument for data collection was the Teachers’ Perception on Mainstreaming Inclusiveness Questionnaire (TPMIQ) adapted from Denwigwe (2014). A Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.75 established for the instrument was deemed reliable at .05 level of significance. Findings, among others, revealed that the teachers’ perception of mainstreaming inclusion in teacher development programmes is high, and that any teacher development programme devoid of inclusiveness training is not efficacious. Based on the findings, it was concluded that continuous development of teachers with emphasis on inclusiveness is a necessity. Counselling implications were highlighted; it was recommended, among others, that teacher development programmes should be restructured and improved upon to embrace inclusiveness.