IMPLEMENTATION AND CHALLENGES OF REVERSE INCLUSION AT KAPSABET VOCATIONAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF IN NANDI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

This case study investigated the implementation of reverse inclusion in a vocational program in

which the deaf were trained along with the hearing students. It was peculiar in the sense that it

was the first one of its kind in Kenya, perhaps one of the few in the entire region of Africa, and

more interestingly a case of hearing students enrolling at a school for the deaf. If it is already

culturally challenging to accommodate the deaf in mainstream public school system, a case of

the hearing venturing into a deaf school environment raised a lot of intriguing questions. The

study addressed the following questions (1) What was the process of implementation of reverse

inclusion like and what strategies were used? (2) What were the attitudes of the community

members, teachers and students towards deafness and reverse inclusion; (3) What are the views

of teachers and students about the effectiveness of the reverse inclusion program? and (4) What

challenges were experienced in the implementation of the reverse inclusion program? Resilience

and Inter Group Contact theories guided the study. Thirty- eight hearing, 22 deaf; and 7 teachers,

were purposively sampled for the study. Data was gathered using focus group discussions,

interviews, documents, and observation; and analyzed using the Logico-Inductive-Process. The

study revealed that the implementation was slow and occurred in stages. The strategies that were

used to facilitate the process included sensitization, cooperation, collaboration and negotiations

with multiple stake holders such as the sponsoring organization (Support Africa), the university

of Eastern Africa Baraton, the school for the deaf, community members and the ministry of

education. In spite of lurking stigmatization of deafness, the trial phase revealed progressive

attitudinal change towards deafness as more hearing students joined the program. Both teachers

and students felt that reverse inclusion was effective as there was cooperation between the deaf

and hearing, the students learnt different trades and upon graduation extended partnership in

businesses. The challenges of implementation included negative attitudes, delays in approval of

the program, lack of infrastructure, and barriers in communication. The researcher recommends

that for successful implementation of reverse inclusion there should be further sensitization of

the community on causes of deafness; multilevel collaboration of education stakeholders and

partners; introduction of sign language in basic education to promote inter group communication;

and integration of special education in teacher education curriculum. In addition, reverse

inclusion should be tried with other forms of disabilities in Kenya, for example the blind.