The Perception of Future Teachers in Handling Diverse Students

Abstract

The contemporary world is characterized with different types of diversities. This is primarily due to the factors like globalisation and seeking of employment across borders. As a consequence, the developed countries have used affirmative action to ensure a diverse workforce. They do this in order to reap the benefits of these diverse workforces and utilize their innovativeness and creativity. Currently there is an effort to promote inclusive environment in different spheres of life including educational institutions. This study is looking at the differently abled students as a component of diversity. It attempts to find out the awareness in managing differently abled students and the legal provisions in the policy and the available teaching tools in imparting education to them amongst future teachers, who are presently studying and are in the verge of completing and starting a new teaching career. A qualitative study was adopted to explore the interpretations of the respondents in their awareness about differently abled learners. The respondents are mostly aware about the differently abled learners. The respondents felt that they were not having any subjects which teach them to handle an inclusive setup in schools. There is a wide gap in spite of the various initiatives taken by the government to create an inclusive environment. It requires more effort at the base so that the challenges of managing diverse students are met. The study found out that there is a need to develop the skills of future teachers in handling diverse students in classroom setting.