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" The Inclusion of Deaf Children in Malaysian Primary Schools: Experiences of Parents, Staff Members and Children "
Khairuddin, Khairul Farhah
Miles, Susan
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1053584
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| Doc. No
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TL52701
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| Main Entry
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Khairuddin, Khairul Farhah
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| Title & Author
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The Inclusion of Deaf Children in Malaysian Primary Schools: Experiences of Parents, Staff Members and Children\ Khairuddin, Khairul FarhahMiles, Susan
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| College
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The University of Manchester (United Kingdom)
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| Date
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2018
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2018
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| Note
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244 p.
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| Abstract
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In response to the global trend to promote equitable and inclusive education for all children, the government of Malaysia is committed to eliminating discrimination against people with disabilities. It aims to ensure that 75% of all children with disabilities are included in mainstream schools by 2025. However, there are only approximately 1% of deaf children being educated in the official government Inclusive Education Programme.An increasing number of deaf children are now able to speak, due to the availability and affordability of cochlear implants, digital hearing aids and specialist intervention, which enables them to be placed in mainstream classrooms.This study is the first of its kind in Malaysia. The research question: “What are school stakeholders’ experiences of deaf children’s inclusion?” was developed as a guide to this study. This study used a qualitative exploratory design informed by a framework developed in the UK to guide best practice of educating deaf children in mainstream schools and focused specifically on the learning environment. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews. Thirty seven individuals participated in this study –five school leaders, five mainstream teachers, five specialist teachers, three teaching assistants, seven parents, seven deaf children and three classmates, in three primary schools in Selangor state, the most developed state in which the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, is situated. The perspectives of two deaf adults with experience of primary,secondary and tertiary education in Malaysia were also included. All recorded data were transcribed and analysed with computer assisted qualitative data analysis software(CAQDAS) Nvivo 10. A thematic analysis approach was applied to identify patterns through a rigorous process of data familiarisation, data coding, and the development and revision of key themes. Findings revealed that school leaders and mainstream teachers are not trained to support deaf children. Only a small number of trained teachers of the deaf are employed to support the inclusion of deaf children and they do not have the necessary expertise to check and maintain hearings aids and cochlear implants or with teaching using sign language. The parents do not have informed choice on complex issues such as communication options or education to take an active role in meeting their child’s educational needs. Including deaf children in the linguistically diverse, exam-oriented school system of Malaysia is challenging because of the difficulties they face in developing effective language and communication skills, even though some children are developing spoken language as a result of being included in school and the majority had established friendships. However, due to the lack of maintenance of assistive technology and limited home-school communication, the children are not gaining the full benefit from this technology. Despite these difficulties, the study found promising signs of positive teacher attitudes, teacher collaboration and parent advocacy for their children’s inclusion.There are several contributions to knowledge in this thesis: the engagement of deaf children in reflecting on their experience of inclusion; the development of a series of interrelated and coexisting dimensions of inclusion of deaf children in the educational process- curricular, organisational, social, acoustic and linguistic dimensions of inclusion. In summary, this study has demonstrated that it is critical to learn from the experiences of school stakeholders to inform the further development of inclusive practices in education and wider society in Malaysia. It represents the beginning of a longer term and more complex evaluation of educational environments in Malaysia. School stakeholders, including policy makers, will need help in understanding that it is not enough to simply 'include’ deaf children in a classroom environment. To include deaf learners in all the dimensions of inclusion will require inter-ministerial collaboration, as well as a step change in the awareness of professionals about disability and deaf equality in education.
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Disability studies
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Individual family studies
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Southeast Asian studies
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Special education
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Miles, Susan
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The University of Manchester (United Kingdom)
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