Empowered teachers, stronger schools: a collaborative approach to equity and inclusion in South Africa

Empowering teachers through collaboration is vital for implementing inclusive education practices amid various challenges. Many higher education institutions offer MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) to empower educators and promote inclusion in classrooms. However, many teachers still lack the collaboration and empowerment needed to effectively implement inclusive education practices. MOOCs facilitate online collaboration among stakeholders, allowing novice teachers to connect with experienced colleagues for support. Therefore, this article explores how alternative instructional methods like MOOCs can address the lack of mechanisms for teacher collaboration and foster empowerment. A virtual focus group session was held with five officials from the Northern Cape Education Department, and a MOOC Web Analysis was utilized for data triangulation purposes. Thematic analysis was employed to evaluate in-depth interviews that were conducted with twelve South African teachers regarding their experiences of working in online spaces, as well as with five local school principals. The results indicated that empowering teachers and promoting collaboration for inclusion are essential for enhancing their skills and knowledge within inclusive contexts. In turn, these efforts serve to develop mechanisms for teacher empowerment and collaboration. Finally, implementable policies for advocating teacher empowerment and collaboration are recommended.