21st Century Teacher Professional Development for Effective Implementation of Inclusive Education

1. Introduction

Global human rights legislation and policies including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006) and the Incheon Declaration (UNESCO, 2015) call for 21^st century teacher professional development for effective implementation of inclusive education. Nevertheless, worldwide, there is no consensus regarding what constitutes such professional development. Thus, embedded in the African philosophy of Ubuntu, this chapter draws on theories of teacher agency and inclusive pedagogy to illuminate on 21^st century teacher professional development for effective implementation of inclusive education. Such professional development is presented as a global and African enterprise to demonstrate its entrenchment in social justice and human rights principles and to reveal its alignment with the Ubuntu philosophy, instead of a solely Eurocentric teacher education practice. Since the global adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human rights (United Nations, 1948), teacher professional development for inclusive education is a topical issue the world over. The World Conference on Education for All (UNESCO, 1990) reaffirmed teacher professional development for inclusive education. The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (UNESCO, 1994) endorsed the global adoption of teacher professional development for inclusion to guarantee model service delivery option in education and the Dakar World Education Forum (UNESCO, 2000) appealed to the international community to guarantee teacher professional development for inclusion to safeguard equal education for “every citizen in every society (UNESCO, 2005:3). These ideals, values, principles and practices of teacher professional development for inclusive education are embedded in the African philosophy of Ubuntu (Majoko, 2021). However, comparable to “other” strategies of knowing, they have been marginalised, referred to negatively with words such as “primitive”, “backward”, “archaic”, “pagan”, and “barbaric” (Ocholla, 2007: 39), as “European epistemology took precedence over African epistemology” (Phasha, 2016: 3). This chapter extends and deepens understandings of 21^st century teacher professional development for effective implementation of inclusive education and inculcates its acceptance, celebration and ownership in Africa as entrenched in Ubuntu. Because of the entrenchment of Ubuntu in human dignity and interest, human welfare and humanness, prioritising moral values and human needs, and is the “morality” of care (Majoko, 2021), teacher professional development for effective implementation of inclusive education is not a foreign phenomenon in Africa.