Responding to the needs of more Challenged Students: Teacher empowerment during COVID-19 Lockdown and Beyond

Abstract

Dealing with students with severe challenges is a more daunting task 
for teachers. There are significantly higher rates of students with 
disabilities in developing countries such as South Africa. The South 
African government is trying immensely to improve how teachers are 
empowered to assist them in their work of dealing with these 
students. These strategies are adapted to fit into the needs of 
students depending on the type of challenges they have. The risks are 
thought to be particularly high during COVID-19 lockdown where 
normal face-to-face classes are replaced with online teaching. When 
the President announced the national lockdown, students and 
teachers had to adapt to the new strategy of conducting teaching and 
learning using online strategies. With students with challenges such as 
Autism Spectrum and Speech-Language barriers is a big challenge as 
they need specialized assistive devices to access learning content. 
Most students come from socially disadvantaged homes where they 
cannot access Information and Communication Technology (ICT) 
facilities. This paper aims to investigate how teachers can be 
empowered with strategies that can be used during COVID-19 and 
beyond for students with Autism and those with speech and language 
barriers. The literature explored here does not only illustrate what 
numerous authors say about teacher empowerment strategies, but it 
also illustrates how some of these strategies can be useful for both 
teachers and students. The discussion is to assist in delivering the best 
strategies that are accessible by both teachers and students in teaching and learning during the COVID-19 lockdown period and 
beyond.