Abstract:
The 21 st century learners can present challenges to regular education school contexts as they
come from diverse cultural, religious, and socioeconomic status backgrounds; have different
abilities or disabilities, gender orientation, ethnicity etc. This study looks at teachers’ attitudes
towards learner diversity and explores how teachers accommodate diverse learners in
mainstream primary and secondary schools in Lesotho. Data for the study was collected using
a qualitative approach utilising a case study design and was analysed through an interpretative
phenomenological analysis (IPA). Thirty teachers participated in the study through focusgroup discussions and semi-structured interviews. Results reveal that teachers understood in
theory what inclusive education is but had no idea how to implement it in their classrooms.
Teachers explained the following as some of their barriers to accommodating learner diversity
in schools: lack of in-service training, inadequate support from Ministry of Education and
Training, the nature of learners’ disability for which they were not trained to support and there
was lack of resources to enable such support, high learner-teacher ratios, and as well as unclear
policy which mandate them to accommodate learner diversity. The study recommends that the
MOET establish teachers’ need for training, develop an inclusive education policy which
should describe how learners should be supported and what resources would be needed for the
support.
