Challenges and needs of primary school English teachers in inclusive classrooms

Inclusive education is no longer a new topic nowadays since it has been implemented in the world for more than 20 years. In Hong Kong, Education Bureau started inclusive education from September 1997 in reaction to the Salamanca Statement (Hong Kong Education Bureau, 2014). There were 42000 students who were in special education needs (SEN) in public primary and secondary schools in the 2016-17 school year. Although there is some research about the teachers’ challenges in inclusive education, there are not many especially in the context of Hong Kong. This research aims at investigating the challenges and needs of primary school English language teachers in inclusive classrooms through interviews. The research context is a local primary school with SEN students and five English teachers are interviewed. The findings of the study show that insufficient manpower, which is a big challenge in inclusive education for participants, leads to large class teaching and intensive timetable for in-service teachers. They hope small class can be created for SEN students so that they can manage students’ study and provide appropriate support. Participants did not have many challenges in building relationship with parents and students or handling emotional and behavioural problems of SEN students. However, they wanted more training workshops for themselves and parents for acquiring more professional and practical methods of teaching SEN students.