Denis Djekourmane
Xinyi Huang*- Faculty of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China
Objectives: Scholars have increasingly focused on inclusive education as a critical approach for addressing educational inequalities and fostering equitable participation for all learners. The purpose of this study is to examine in-service teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations regarding inclusive education in Chad, a sub-Saharan African country where limited research exists on this topic. Grounded in the inclusive pedagogy framework, the study explores how teachers understand educational exclusion and inclusion and how they respond to the diverse socio-economic, political, cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds of their students.
Methods: A qualitative research approach with phenomenological design was employed using semi-structured, open-ended interviews with 23 in-service teachers (6 female and 17 male teachers). Data were analyzed through thematic analysis to identify patterns in teachers’ perceptions and practices related to inclusive education.
Findings: Four major themes emerged from the research findings: (1) teachers’ perceptions of exclusion, (2) understanding of inclusion, (3) inclusive teaching practices, and (4) challenges in implementation. Specifically, teachers identified exclusion based on religion, ethnicity, political affiliation, economic status, and geographic origin, yet tended to overlook gender, disability, and refugee status. Further, while some inclusive practices—such as resource sharing, recognizing individual needs, facilitating group work, and maintaining neutrality were evident, teachers rarely addressed students’ emotional or psychological well-being. Key challenges included insufficient pre-service and in-service training, limited systemic and institutional support, and reluctance to engage with socially and politically sensitive issues, which may unintentionally sustain social inequalities.
Discussion and conclusion: In-service teachers expressed a strong need for more practical guidance and clearer policy frameworks to support inclusive teaching. The findings highlight the importance of reforming teacher education to integrate inclusive pedagogy, multicultural content, social justice principles, and reflective practice. Strengthening teacher agency and providing structured support systems are crucial for fostering equitable and supportive learning environments. The study concludes by outlining theoretical and practical implications and suggesting future research directions, including studies using mixed or combined methods.
1 Introduction
Against the background of globalization, digitalization, and student mobility, inclusive education has become more critical than ever. Scholars and institutions from democratic education systems in developed countries have long suggested how to provide equitable access to high-quality education, recognizing it as a prerequisite for fair opportunities in employment, health, and societal participation (Caliskan et al., 2020; Matthieu and Junius, 2023). In such contexts, schooling functions to reduce social inequities associated with socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, or migration background, and promoting multicultural and inclusive school climates is both a normative and practical objective (Schwarzenthal et al., 2023; Stoffers et al., 2024). Despite progress in some educational systems (Shockley et al., 2024), substantial challenges persist in alternative contexts, particularly in African developing countries such as Chad. In these nations, social, religious, and cultural diversity exists alongside enduring exclusionary practices, hindering the execution of inclusive reforms (Arditi, 2003; Chang-Bacon et al., 2023; Hassanpour et al., 2022).
For the developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, scholars emphasized the importance of inclusive education for improving quality and equity (Asongu and Odhiambo, 2019; Okyere et al., 2019). Previous studies indicated that lower student-to-teacher ratios and greater gender parity are associated with better educational outcomes and human development indicators (Kouladoum, 2023). However, evidence from rural South African schools indicates that, despite supportive policies, educators frequently lack both inclusive mindsets and practical tools for implementing differentiated teaching (Sepadi, 2025). All this underscores the need for teacher training, curriculum flexibility, and adequate resources to translate inclusive policies into classroom practices (Asmamaw and Semela, 2023; Iturra and Gallardo, 2022).
Contextually, Chad presents a particularly challenging case due to limited access to quality education, high exclusion rates, and low literacy and numeracy skills among students (Chissaque et al., 2024; Ingutia et al., 2020). The country’s ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity, along with a large number of refugees coming from nearby countries, makes it even harder to provide fair education (Magrin, 2008; Mallaye et al., 2014; World Migration, 2024). The inflow of children from different backgrounds has profoundly affected the nation’s social dynamics as well as its educational structures and learning environments (World Migration, 2024). Further, the results of the assessments administered by the Conference of Ministers of Education of French-speaking States and Governments (CONFEMEN), driven by the Program for the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC), indicated that Chad ranks significantly below other African countries in academic performance and democratic inclusion (PASEC, 2021). Furthermore, a report from UN-Habitat on African urbanization raised serious problems regarding the exclusion of school-aged children living in highly vulnerable conditions and informal settlements (UN-Habitat IHS-Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2018). Moreover, given the country’s wide-ranging sociocultural diversity and ongoing issues of educational exclusion, the current context in Chad perpetuates systemic barriers within both the schooling sector and the labor market, thereby sustaining patterns of inequality and limited future opportunities for students (Delprato and Frola, 2022; Heisig et al., 2020).
For years, teachers’ knowledge of educational exclusion and diversity, as well as their professional competencies, was considered to significantly influence whether inequalities are mitigated or perpetuated (Almalky and Alwahbi, 2023; Jauhari et al., 2025). Understanding teachers’ perceptions of exclusion, their instructional strategies, and their professional attitudes is essential for identifying the conditions that enable or hinder equitable learning environments (Hirt et al., 2025). To determine this inclusivity of education, previous studies considered students’ daily classroom experiences and teachers’ professional training needs in inclusive education while also examining how teachers understand disproportionality, exclusion, and the application of pedagogical knowledge in a dynamic society (Antoniou et al., 2025). Examining in-service teachers’ perspectives is not only critical for insights into the challenges they faced and the strategies they employed to implement inclusive pedagogical practices but also essential for educational reforms (Yang, 2025).
Although in-service teacher perspectives and their voices remain crucial for understanding and addressing the phenomena of exclusionary practices (Opstoel et al., 2025; Veck, 2023), literature on teachers’ perceptions, practices, and aspirations regarding inclusive education in Chad is almost non-existent. This limitation creates critical gaps at three different levels. First, at the international level, existing literature addresses inclusive education globally but rarely examines its applicability in low-resource, culturally diverse contexts, leaving the relevance to Chad underexplored. Second, at the national level, although some organizations show interest in the topic, empirical studies on inclusive education in Chad are scarce, with little attention to in-service teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations, highlighting the need for context-specific investigation. The third point is at the methodological level. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of recent qualitative research informed by inclusive pedagogy frameworks that provide in-depth insight into teachers’ experiences and professional approaches toward inclusive education in Chad. Addressing these gaps is the aim of the current study. We then employed a qualitative approach with a phenomenological research design to explore the nature of educational exclusion in Chad and examine teachers’ understandings, pedagogical responses, challenges faced, and professional expectations concerning inclusive education. Using inclusive pedagogy perspectives as a guide, we structured the study around the following key research questions and endeavored to answer them.
Q1: How do teachers perceive educational exclusions for students in Chad?
Q2: How do teachers address the educational exclusion issues in their classroom practices?
Q3: What are their expectations and potential solutions to make education more inclusive?
Responses to these questions will offer theoretical and practical insights for policymakers, decision-makers, and educators. The findings will also inform academic debates and support teacher educators in designing, special education teachers with professional development programs that promote inclusive education and improved democratic learning outcomes.
2 Literature review
Globally, the pursuit of inclusive and equitable education has become a central priority and retained attention for academic discourse among scholars (Almalky and Alwahbi, 2023; Asongu and Odhiambo, 2019; Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2011). Educational researchers claimed that democratic education systems are guided by fundamental commitments to provide all students with an equal chance without any form of discrimination (Armstrong, 2023; Garreta Bochaca, 2006; Tamim and Tariq, 2015). Following this, education systems and schools are expected to treat students from different ethnic, racial, religious, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds with equal value. They should embody the principles of fairness and inclusion by supporting students’ needs and helping them maximize their potential (Petersen et al., 2022). Inclusive education, therefore, tends to guarantee the rights of all students in a given educational system and provide equal consideration, recognition, and opportunities for children’s full and equal integration into educational processes. Further, inclusive education systems then try to ensure that there is some assistance and interventions for the disadvantaged and less privileged categories, and an equal and transparent distribution of public resources is applied (D’Inverno et al., 2025). Moreover, inclusive education takes into account some citizenship feelings, responsibilities, and moral duties to guide all educational process and discourses (Ainscow, 2023; Corcoran, 2023). Inclusive education is considered to be a way for all stakeholders to give access opportunities for a better existence and the main means of fighting against oppression and discrimination (Enchikova et al., 2025; Stumbrienė et al., 2025; Verger et al., 2020). Accordingly, educators are expected to protect the rights of all students in a given school system and give all children the same chances, consideration, and recognition to be fully and equally involved in the learning process (Rolfe et al., 2022).
Scholars revealed that social stratification is produced and reproduced through characteristics such as gender, skin color, ethnicity, and class, along with factors like religion, political affiliation, and regional identity (Acker et al., 2023; Alajmi, 2024). These divisions restrict access to privileges and reinforce discrimination within social systems and cultural values, which in turn contribute to educational exclusion and the reproduction of unequal learning opportunities (Abraham et al., 2024; Janssen et al., 2024). Further, inclusive education would work to break down these formal or informal exclusions from the macro level, such as economic, political, and cultural systems, to the micro level, like gender inequality and women’s disempowerment, where people and groups talk to each other (Cheng et al., 2025; Muyambi and Ahiaku, 2025). Contemporary approaches to inclusive education emphasize the constructive effort to eradicate any form of exclusion in all levels of educational policies and practices for the marginalized, underrepresented, and oppressed categories who experience it (Knoblauch et al., 2025). As agents of change, teachers play a key role in creating a democratic education system by educating a new generation of citizens about educational inclusion, giving them democratic skills as they grow up, and helping them fight against structured exclusions and attitudes that hold people back (Conroy et al., 2024; Matusov, 2023). Because of this, teachers should learn the skills that help them see how economic, cultural, political, and educational resources are not shared fairly across the country and within each school, and they should manage classrooms to become democratic for adolescents (McDevitt and Hopp, 2020). In order for teaching to be more inclusive, practices that mitigate power, cultural, and religious imbalances in the classroom have to be considered, and teachers have to be sensitive to the needs of all students within the world of the neoliberal educational paradigm (Bindamnan, 2023; Demsky-Cohen and Cohen, 2024).
Educational exclusion is not recent. It has deep historical and geographical roots, deeply rooted in many cultures and less democratic education systems. Therefore, in practice, these education systems create an interlinked network of obstacles to the excluded groups of individuals (Friedman and Billig, 2018; Li et al., 2025). Some social science theories, such as Fraser’s social justice theory, Bourdieu’s (1989) cultural reproduction theory, and inclusive pedagogy perspectives, provided some frameworks enabling us to examine educational exclusion and propose appropriate interventions. They help reconsider educational exclusion as a form of inequality that can occur in school, policies, and infrastructural stages according to the related variables like race, gender, religion, regional, and political affiliation, and social class or ethnicity (Chang-Bacon et al., 2023; Garreta Bochaca, 2006). These lenses also aid in understanding how exclusion manifests in educational practices (Stumbrienė et al., 2025). Researchers have often advocated for the full participation of all children in educational opportunities and social mobility, emphasizing the need to reduce economic disparities and ensure equitable access for students from low-income and marginalized communities (Li et al., 2025).
Furthermore, non-recognition for cultural inclusion through humiliation, stigmatization, and cultural domination drives to the promotion of cultural and values stereotypes that disadvantage certain groups of students when they do not receive equal respect and consideration for all children (Conroy et al., 2024). While educational exclusion prevents some students from participating in the decision-making that can affect their learning and life, inclusion would be the equal and full integration of all learners irrespective of their background in the reforms and distributions processes and procedures (Refaeli et al., 2023). It is noted that inclusion in education would usually attempt to ensure that students benefit from the education system, the service, and recognition that allow them to achieve their academic and career goals, enabling them to reduce the economic, cultural, and political gaps (Walker and Mkwananzi, 2015; Wang and Chang, 2025).
Teachers’ efforts to contribute to inclusive education are pivotal not only in developing significant impacts on students’ academic performance, but also in their socioemotional and intercultural communication abilities. Studies on educational exclusion in Chad have revealed some symptomatic aspects of educational practices and decisions. For instance, in the report provided by COFEMEN on underperforming and unsuccessful Chadian students, among others, it was noted that many students may face issues of exclusions and prejudices within education systems, not only through discriminatory policies but also by educators’ classroom practices (PASEC, 2021). Similarly, the Chadian government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the 2030 educational strategy report clearly mentioned the relationship between gender, regional, and socioeconomic factors that support educational exclusion and create educational disparities. The report has also demonstrated that attitudes supporting exclusions at the personal and political levels may influence instructors to be less engaged in ensuring educational inclusion (UNHCR, 2020). Moreover, in the study conducted by Magrin (2008) on educational inclusion, the authors suggested that assisting students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be the avenue through which these excluded students will feel some dignity and recognition. There are also similar results in the past study that reveal how teachers, as agents of educational development, directly or indirectly contribute to exclusion behavior experienced in sociocultural, class, or achievement differences (Hisherik and Paul-Binyamin, 2024; Zak-Doron and Perry-Hazan, 2024). Further, research has shown that there are some issues regarding the role of teachers in developing inclusive education for all students (Hargreaves, 2012; Sibbett, 2022).
These existing studies have highlighted the importance of investigating how in-service teachers perceive inclusive education, its effects, and the practical solutions they propose to address exclusion. However, educational inclusion in the Chadian context, characterized by cultural, ethnic, religious, and political diversity, has received minimal attention. Moreover, no recent qualitative empirical studies have been identified at either the international or national levels that investigate this topic. Therefore, in this study, we focus on examining in-service Chadian teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations regarding inclusive education. The aim is to offer more details about teachers’ understanding and practices for achieving educational inclusion as a foundation for democratic development in Chad. The findings are expected to contribute to educational theory, practice, policy, and reform, and future research.
3 Materials and methods
3.1 Qualitative approach: phenomenological design
In this study, we used the phenomenological research design, which is one of the sub-branches of the qualitative research approach. A qualitative approach is more suitable for the current study because it helps in investigating the specific context in which participants behave and the factors and consequences of their actions (Merriam, 2014). Qualitative approaches typically share key characteristics, including the use of words from natural language, observable social interactions, and participants’ expressions through artistic presentations of written words, which are often aimed at generating knowledge about human experiences, actions, and social processes, and are different from quantitative approaches that rely on numerical data and mathematical analyses (Castillo et al., 2023; Merriam, 2014). The phenomenological design then focuses on the interpretation of experiences, how people give meanings and values to their lived experiences, and how these perceptions influence their behaviors (Angus, 2017; De Monticelli, 2019). Therefore, a qualitative approach with phenomenological design permeates the current study to deeply examine emotions, expressions, and comprehend participants’ experiences and meanings.
Informed initially by a series of theories, like cultural reproduction theory developed by Bourdieu (1989), teacher agency theory, and the critical pedagogy framework developed by Freire (2000), the current study utilizes the concept of inclusive education as a pedagogical commitment to provide learning opportunities for all, irrespective of the learners’ differences, rather than compensating for individual deficits, based on the inclusive pedagogy framework (Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2011). Within school culture, the inclusive pedagogy framework fosters teacher professionalism, their mutual respect, equity, and the transformation of diversity into a rich educational resource. As such, it provides a robust theoretical lens for examining how teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations shape inclusive school cultures and contribute to democratic education and student development. Therefore, we developed the questions based on this framework.
3.2 Participants
This research was conducted in public primary schools in N’Djamena, capital of Chad, where the population is highly diverse in terms of demographic characteristics such as religion, political affiliation, ethnicity, and social class (Jain, 2025). Regarding the complexity of the issue being explored, the researcher designed the study group with maximum variation in the sample to gain a comprehensive understanding of the participants’ perceptions. Thus, the maximum variation sampling process was chosen specifically to capture the overall views, comprehensions, and real-life experiences, as well as to generally gain a broad understanding of the phenomenon in terms of the focus of the research (M. Given, 2008). For demographic characteristics, participants of the study consisted of 23 in-service teachers, of whom 6 (26.1%) were women, and 17 (73.9%) were men. All the interviewed participants self-reported their demographic information, including age, gender, and teaching experiences. The interviewees’ ages ranged from 27 to 54 years. Their work experience varied from 1 to 29 years, with participants distributed across 1–5 years, 6–15 years, and 16–29 years of teaching experience. In terms of level of education and qualifications, 10 participants (43.5%) hold a Certificat de Fin d’Etudes Normales (CFEN), a diploma of one-year primary school teacher training; 8 (34.8%) had a bachelor’s degree in education; and 5 (21.7%) had a bachelor’s degree in other domains. All this background information is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Description of the participants.
3.3 Data collection
Informed initially by a series of theories, like cultural reproduction theory developed by Bourdieu (1989), teacher agency theory, and the critical pedagogy framework developed by Freire (2000), the current study utilizes the concept of inclusive education as a pedagogical commitment to provide learning opportunities for all, irrespective of the learners’ differences, rather than compensating for individual deficits, based on the inclusive pedagogy framework (Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2011). Within school culture, the inclusive pedagogy framework fosters teacher professionalism, their mutual respect, equity, and transforming diversity into a rich educational resource. As such, it provides a robust theoretical lens for examining how teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations shape inclusive school cultures and contribute to democratic education and student development. Therefore, we developed the questions based on this framework.
In order to make the current study participative and seek qualitative responses to our question, we utilized open-ended semi-structured interview questions for data production. The interview process was guided by the following five main questions.
1. How do you manage the exclusion issues among your students?
2. In your classroom teaching, how do you implement inclusive practices? How would you describe your strategies or approaches you used for the inclusion of all students?
3. How would you perceive your own position in the quest for educational inclusion?
4. What are the main challenges when enacting inclusive education in your teaching environment and practices?
5. What could be the potential strategies and orientations for inclusive education in Chad?
Our interview was semi-structured, where the above pre-planned questions were asked to all participants. However, participants’ responses to these questions often drew our attention to follow up with sub-questions. The follow-up questions were included to gain more profound insights into teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations. For instance, we asked, “Can you tell me more about what you have just said concerning …?” “Can you describe your typical teaching strategies intended for inclusion?” “What was a particularly challenging situation you ever experienced?” “What are the systemic or institutional factors contributing to these situations?” “What are your expectations for future improvements in your teaching environment?” “According to you, what kind of training, resources, policies, or interventions would you like to see implemented to better the situation?” and so forth.
Prompted by these questions, a respondent said, “The remarkable situation I had encountered in this school… We have students from various backgrounds in our school, including those who were born in provinces and moved to N’Djamena; however, our curriculum, assessments, and teaching schedules were not designed with these differences in mind. I remember the day when I found myself torn between addressing the students’ needs and fulfilling institutional objectives, after a child told me, “He cannot understand the stories we read in French if I can translate them into his local language.” That moment forced me to question not only my multilingual skills but also the deeper values that shape our understanding of what it means to “educate” every learner. Similarly, another informant mentioned that, at a system and national level, the greatest problem lies in the mismatch between the authority’s discourse of inclusion, social cohesion, and pacific cohabitation and the unchanged operating system. “Policies celebrate diversity, while schools remain governed by a one-size-fits-all model, standardized curricula, and exam-oriented evaluation with limited resources. Take, for example, the ENS (Ecole Normale Superieure); the teacher training program often overemphasizes technical competence and neglects the ethical and relational dimensions, which are critical for inclusion.” Responding to expectations, another informant revealed that transformations can be structural but should be more conscious. “We need educational spaces that view diversity not as a challenge to overcome, but as the very foundation of our society, cultures, and learning. Inclusion is not something out there. It is a dialog about justice, belonging, and the purpose of education itself. The field needs empowering teachers to act as reflective practitioners, rethinking curricula. I hope our leaders and decision-makers think of inclusion not just as political statements but as sustained investment in training, resources, and community awareness. More professional development opportunities for teachers focused on inclusive teaching methods will better the situation”.
It is worth mentioning that we conducted all these interviews in French, one of the two languages of instruction in Chad. The duration for each participant was between 45 min and 1 h, and they were digitally recorded, transcribed into a Word document, and translated into English.
3.4 Data and analysis
The data analysis process was performed using MAXQDA version 24, a qualitative data analysis software (Kuckartz, 2014). The study adopted a qualitative inductive content and thematic analysis to analyze the data. The thematic analysis helps in identifying, structuring, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting the true picture of the phenomenon under scrutiny through themes emerging within the data (Nowell et al., 2017).
This method is suitable for examining new topics to make comparisons when contrasting differences and finding themes that capture the meaning of the collected raw data (Merriam, 2014). We carried out a two-stage coding process to identify all concepts considered to be relevant to the aims of the study. The codes enable the study to attribute summative qualities to some of the data gathered in content analysis. Grouping topics and subtopics through codes essentially provides tools to crystallize the large theme into small pieces. This means that by connecting codes to categories and categories to themes, the main ideas and themes that shape how teachers perceive, aspire, and practice inclusive education were mainly captured. For instance, in determining teachers’ perceptions of educational exclusion, we established code labels for the points often mentioned by teachers (educational injustice, students’ stigmatization, marginalization, exclusion, financial issues, unequal equipment, lack of learning materials, food insecurity, cultural and religious understanding). Moreover, the mechanism of internalized reasoning was singled out, establishing a one-dimensional relationship between learning outcomes and students’ own efforts and linking the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural inequalities to negative experiences in educational practices. After putting the codes into groups, we took the most important parts and narrowed them down to three key points: first, differences in ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds; second, differences in economic, political, and geographical areas; and third, how these differences affect the exclusion of students. We applied the same processes to the other codes.
3.5 Trustworthiness
In this study, a multi-stage participant selection strategy was employed to select participants. First, the 7th, 8th, and 9th districts of N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, were purposefully chosen as the targeted areas. After identifying all public primary schools within these districts, a random sampling process was used to select schools. Subsequently, inclusion criteria for participant teachers were established. Eligible participants were required to have at least 1 year of teaching experience, be currently employed as in-service teachers in public primary schools within one of the three districts of N’Djamena, and use French as their language of instruction. All selected teachers met these criteria. The focus on the three neighboring districts of N’Djamena was based on two main considerations: convenience and the cultural diversity resulting from the mixing of students in these areas.
Furthermore, throughout the whole research process, we employed various strategies to ensure the trustworthiness of the collected materials. For the trustworthiness of qualitative research, scholars have some consensus that the four criteria proposed by Lincoln and Guba (1985) framework, which includes credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability, is critical in ensuring the rigor in empirical work (Nowell et al., 2017; Shenton, 2004). To enhance credibility, we not only developed the interview questions based on relevant theoretical and empirical literature but also sought feedback and guidance from three academic experts knowledgeable about the research topic and who are “familiar with the participants’ cultures.” Only teachers who volunteered to participate in the discussion were involved in the data collection process, and we provided them with the right to withdraw from participation. For ethical reasons, we clearly informed all the study’s participants, and they read and signed the provided consent letter. We encouraged participants to express their views freely, frankly, and in detail without time constraints, fostering a comfortable and open atmosphere during the interviews (Creswell, 2009). Since the study was designed by the authors, to further ensure confirmability, an experienced qualitative researcher reviewed the coding process to verify the accuracy and consistency of data interpretation, as recommended by the extant literature (Creswell, 2009; Lincoln and Guba, 1985). Additionally, the researchers maintained a neutral stance throughout the data collection process, avoiding external influences or interruptions that could potentially affect participants’ openness. For the transferability of the findings, we acknowledge that the phenomenon under our investigation is context-based because when looking at the targeted districts, it is also a palpable example within a broader situation in N’Djamena and many regions of Chad. Consequently, while the transferability of the findings may not be immediate, it provides readers with an understanding of the contexts, enabling them to compare or replicate these situations in their own environments. Finally, we ensured dependability by transparently presenting the entire research process. We were committed to providing an audit trail detailing the data collection procedure. This includes informed theories, interview questions, participants, sampling, locations, and coding steps, allowing others to trace how findings were derived. The same interview guide was used for all participants to maintain consistency. Although researchers reported that meeting the dependability criterion is difficult in qualitative investigations (Shenton, 2004), all our measures ensured that the study’s findings are consistent and could be replicated under similar conditions.
4 Findings
Even though the study talks about the above-mentioned interview questions, the participants brought up different issues related to the situations Chadian students were in, how they saw themselves in the process of inclusive education, the inclusive practices and strategies they used, the problems they faced, and their hopes. Here are four themes that were used to organize the data analysis process: (1) educational disparities, (2) practices of educational inclusion, (3) the stance of inclusive education teachers, and (4) the problems teachers faced when they used inclusive education practices. We present these four points in detail, along with some teachers’ quotations.
4.1 Theme one: educational disparities
One of the most common concepts mentioned by the interviewees when talking about educational exclusion for students was educational disparities. Their answers revealed three sub-sections regarding the causes of educational exclusion among students: (1) differences based on ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds; (2) differences based on economic, political, and geographical areas; and (3) how these differences cause students to be left out.
4.1.1 Disparities based on ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds
The theme of differences in ethnicity, religion, and cultural backgrounds shows how the participants thought that differences in ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds made Chadian students feel left out. The interviewed teachers focused more on the collective prejudices that faced some groups of learners and the unfamiliarity of each other’s cultures, which turned into misunderstandings, non-recognition, and stigmatization, thereby leading to educational exclusions. For instance, one of the participants asserted that:
Cosmopolitan classes that include students from other cities, from different cultures, languages, and religious backgrounds, where a uniform life is uncommon, may cause students to experience more problems. These problems can affect students’ understanding of inclusion by reacting and manifesting themselves when peers act strangely, feel less comfortable, and express underestimation.
Exclusion or mistreatment of students due to ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds is considered a variable that has negative impacts on students’ social participation, social mobility, and social isolation. This theme provides insights into social isolation issues that students from marginalized sociocultural groups may face. Language and sociocultural proximity are critical elements for communication among students and their friendships, as certain dominant languages or cultures tend to exclude others or treat their cultural behaviors as ridiculous. According to these findings, being the othered by others creates educational exclusions in student sociocultural integration and leads to alienation, silence, or timidity to others. Another participant further noted:
Language differences were perceived through speaking of mother tongue and/or accents […]. Usually, some dominant students try to make fun of or laugh at others when they speak their local dialect or bring an unfamiliar accent when speaking the dominant group’s language. By doing this, many other students felt devalued, potentially isolating themselves from others and retreating into their own worlds. Therefore, they start being grouped and choose to make friends with classmates or people belonging to their language or culture, and some stigmatized students who cannot find peers to build friendships show the sentiment of exclusion.
From these participants’ points of view, ethnic, religious, and cultural differences not only lead to some overt and perceived forms of educational exclusion, but they can also be seen in the friends that students choose and how those choices reflect cultural norms, making students feel like they do not belong to the system and are outsiders. This can also pose a challenge for students seeking inclusion in both school and society.
4.1.2 Differences based on economic, political, and geographical areas
During the discussion, some interviewees mentioned that there were also disparities based on economic, political, and geographical factors in their classroom regarding student dressing, nutrition, and the quantity and quality of educational equipment and learning materials.
In fact, if you ask students whether they had breakfast or not, they are sometimes embarrassed, because when you ask, the majority of them do not respond. Most students from modest families come to school without having breakfast, and you can realize that they are always exhausted [...]. You can categorize the economic conditions or political background of students’ families based on their appearance, such as their clothing, school attendance, and transportation. These students look ragged when compared to their fellows.
This argument shows that the economic and political conditions of parents can impact students’ clothing, nutrition, learning materials, and transportation, thereby influencing their educational practices and experiences.
4.1.3 The effects of disparities on students
The section presents how the interviewees described the consequences of disparities on the learners. In most cases, the participant tended to link the disparities based on political and socioeconomic factors, the ones from ethnic, religious, and sociocultural sources to the issues related to socioemotional skills and non-cognitive problems like students’ communicative and interactive abilities, the manifestation of negative emotions, rather than student academic performance, such as their academic self-efficacy and engagement or cognitive success. For instance, consider the following statement.
Sociocultural differences can cause grouping in interpersonal relationships. In this case, students, especially those who are in the background or in the minority, may experience communication anxiety. Some parents can buy their children schoolbags, clothes, and shoes of very high quality and expensive brands […]. Students [living] in poor conditions may feel worthless when they compare themselves with others.
A prevalent line of reasoning that emerged in the interviews was that students could succeed if they studied hard. Accordingly, some teachers tended to consider individual student effort as being sufficient for positive school outcomes.
When students are engaged themselves, they can be successful however circumstances are. In this case, they care less about the surrounding environment. And this is common […]. When they are determined, nothing can stop them. When you see students who passed the Bac (High school national exam), many of them are from poor family background, with difficult living and studying conditions, but they can take good scores […]. Some brilliants and successful students here are usually from these situations, because they study hard. For academic success, learners are the main actors […]. But when students are not determined to study, and less enthusiastic with school program, they would be unsuccessful academically […]. Student engagement in learning and their success occurs when they are involved […].
When some participants’ teachers tended to bridge the deterministic paths between student learning outcomes and their personal engagement and self-efficacy, they may somehow fail to fully identify the educational exclusions and marginalization resulting from the cultural, economic, and sociopolitical factors of disadvantaged students. Moreover, when instructors narrow their perceptions of students’ effort as a main variable of success, by not considering the other factors affecting student academic success, like hard learning circumstances, and some practices that limit them from fully exploiting their potentialities, these perceptions may prevent them from figuring out students who are in need or struggle for education integration.
4.2 Theme two: educational inclusion practices
Analyzing the participants’ points of view, sociocultural and ethnic-religious and economic and political disparities constitute the important points that the interviewees emphasized. Therefore, the educational inclusion practices they considered to be ideal were also described around these factors’ backgrounds. We identified two surrounding sub-themes and highlighted as following heading: (1) sociocultural integration and (2) redistribution of educational resources.
4.2.1 Sociocultural recognition
Sociocultural integration as an inclusive education form pertains to reconsideration of the devalued through cultural or social stereotypes, behavior, or digressing individual or group of people based on their cultural differences. Sociocultural integration advocated for the creation of an inclusive and intercultural understanding and tolerance in educational practices that allow all students to have an equal chance of access to educational social mobility (Ma et al., 2024). Coping with educational inclusion through sociocultural integration is relevant in the participants’ responses. The participants speak about education practices that would enhance the involvement of all students, irrespective of their family background, to mitigate their sociocultural isolations in their communicative, socialization, and friendship participation usually impacted by cultural differences. In order to create an integrative atmosphere for mutual understanding among students, teachers deliberately adopt inclusive teaching strategies like studying with malleable groups through heterogeneous mixing seating for students from different ethnics, cultures, and religions, leading activities like book reading, watching videos, and showing stories which are relevant to language and cultural diversity.
Group learning improves the development of friendships and communicative skills for some students from other ethnics group or those who are shy with sociocultural adaptation problems […]. I deliberately plan group learning program, then students who feel that they are culturally distanced can gain confidence and collaborate to work and communicate actively. The design and arrangement in the cleanroom seating are also important when try to bring interaction and inclusion […]. I usually pay attention in terms of cultural and religious heterogeneous and the repartitions of students in the classroom […]. Sociocultural integration can be developed among students by different ways like movies, books, and stories telling in classroom practices, and encourage learners to respect others cultures, language, religion with friendship, and brotherhood.
Developing communication and interaction among students for purposive learning objectives is fundamental for them to understand educational exclusion and prejudices, and alleviate their sentiments of fear and distance developed during their experiences of oppression. In addition, when they learn about their peers’ cultures and their forms of being, this awareness of multicultural paradigms leads them to understand and respect others’ values (Jayadi et al., 2022; Rajiah, 2025). However, for high-level knowledge about educational exclusion, stakeholders should be engaged in collective debates and meaning-making education practices in order to deconstruct the structured patterns and functioning of systemic channels that produce and reproduce exclusions (Lu et al., 2022). In general, the interviewees did not propose such practices in their statements.
4.2.2 Redistribution of educational resources
The participants have mentioned that they used to assist some students who faced materials or educational equipment they needed with the resources from their own pocket, school funds, and extra resources, or financial contributions they received. Also, to deal with educational disparities and feelings of differentiation, some teachers support students with the material received during their career promotion.
In this school, there sometimes we discuss with colleagues about to financially or materially assisting students in need. For examples, when they lack decent clothing, or the ones provided by their families get old, teacher council try to buy for them. I frequently give the promotional books provided by central teacher syndicate to some to students with economic issues and from poor family and socially disadvantaged background. We try to solve the material problems of the students according to our financial and material capacities, but there are some cases we just feel not active enough to handle. As teachers, you know, we are limited as well.
In Chad, there are limited comprehensions and systemic interventions aimed to ameliorate the situation of students who are experiencing a critical economic problem, who are even majority. Even though there is substantial research showing the association of students’ educational exclusions, their feeling of otherness, and marginalization when there is unequal distribution and redistribution of resources and practices (Lash, 2021), for the case of Chad, consciousness and a sense of responsibility could be enhanced at the school and teacher level in conditions within which the government’s current investment is insufficient to cover the resources students need. From the interview’s viewpoint, it revealed that teachers initiated this sense of responsibility and sensitivity spontaneously, and focused more on the financial issues.
4.3 Theme three: teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education
This section includes two key points related to how teachers perceived themselves while teaching students with different sociocultural backgrounds and educational exclusions: (1) value neutrality and (2) equal consideration. The two points under theme three provide insights into how teachers value educational inclusion during their classroom practices.
4.3.1 Teacher’ impartiality
This part shows the opinions of some participants who considered impartiality as the manner to be inclusive with students with different backgrounds. Therefore, they realized that, as a teacher, they need to render their classroom as well as their behavior and practice more impartially. They mentioned that teachers should not bring cultural elements that are not promoted by the school as democratic values to the teaching agenda, because it appears to be the rational way for diversity. Moreover, these teachers noted that, when they discussed the different sociocultural elements in class discussions, it could be perceived as being engaged in politics or religious topics in the classroom, which naturally would provoke negative reactions from some students. One participant largely stated and used his case as an example.
As a teacher, you could not be familiar with every student’s culture […]. The important thing is to not go beyond the promoted democratic values […]. In so doing, you can treat learners from every cultural and religious background fairly and impartially […]. For my case, I think that when we start talking about the problems related to sensitives topics like religious values, cultural differences, discriminations in the class, division also occur among students. There were so many examples when teacher sharing of anecdotes and integrated some questions linked to culture and religious beliefs, it disturbs not only students, but even parents and school administrators feel that the teaching is going to be ideologized or politicized […]. Teachers have duty to unite all students around democratic and citizenships values […]. Thus, instructor have also duty to be impartial […]. By gathering students around the common values, teachers could work for a common objective.
4.3.2 Equal consideration of students
In most cases, the interviewees considered inclusive education teaching as practices built on a principle of equality centered on collective needs and providing equal learning opportunities.
Inclusive education starts with equality, that means treating all learners equally, irrespective of their background […]. In the politicized and religious influenced system like ours (the Chadian system), where destructive exclusions are observed everywhere, it let perceive that class took the forms of the environment of division, rather than being an environment of cohesions […]. It is not rare to see conflicts between students […]. The teacher’s task in this case is to maintain impartiality and be temporally and with energy fair to all student. To mitigate the problem of exclusions and educational inequalities if teacher behave impartially and give the same service and opportunities to all student, with no discrimination.
It may be advisable to consider the results related to these two topics conjointly, because the two encompass intertwined aspects. Firstly, the social context within which the cultural component is shown in teachers’ interventions is politicized. Secondly, teachers identified themselves as advocates of democratic values, and work with the logic of being the county’s civil servant for educational inclusion. As inherited from the French colonial system, teachers in Chad work in a highly centralized and bureaucratic education system (Ben Salah et al., 2024; Gerow et al., 2024). In the conception of the Chadian education system, public school teachers are considered civil servants, meaning that educational institutions should have the same conditions all over the nation, which is, in many cases, insufficient to provide equality of opportunity to students. In addition, the Chadian education system does not integrate comprehensive policies to tackle the problem of inclusion, multiculturalism, religious tolerance, and equality before opportunities (Alkar, 2025; Anas et al., 2025). The reason why teachers feel guideless regarding the problem of educational exclusion, or tend to fall into common assumptions of the institutions in which they teach.
Through teachers’ responses, their perceptions indicate that dealing with sociocultural issues leads them to political and religious topics. When we consider the two sub-themes of this section in an interconnected way, it shows that the teachers, as civil servants, identified themselves with the logic of the state bureaucracy when seeing the provided services aligned with the conceptions of objectivity and equality. Past studies have demonstrated that instructions in some educational systems are operating in a time when political, economic, and sociocultural discrimination are widespread and deeply polarized, and experienced (Berggren and Nilsson, 2016; Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2011). In this sense, the current conditions in Chad are analogous because teachers are working in social spaces that are increasingly political, economic, and socio-culturally discriminatory. In such situations, the teacher’s unconditional adherence to bureaucratic logic may become more obvious as an instrument of social control (Cervantes and Radge, 2018).
4.4 Theme four: challenges faced in practicing inclusive education
The final aspect is regarding the challenges teachers faced when trying to ensure inclusive education for all students. Accordingly, this section also deals with two subsections: (1) teachers’ taking a position, and (2) inclusive education trainings.
4.4.1 Position-taking of teachers
This part reports some respondents’ considerations about their own factors affecting their everyday communication with students, which in turn leads to inequalities among learners. At this point, some participants sincerely and openly mentioned some aspects related to their confrontation with issues born out of socioeconomic, cultural, and religious biases.
Students from families and some ethnic groups often have hygiene problems and are even careless […]. I just try to decline whenever they offer a gift or food [...]. Especially children or parents from different religious beliefs are always abrupt, difficult to manage, and like talking. You know, for me, I pay more attention to hygiene and cleanliness [...]. Sometimes, I find it difficult to relate to certain students due to their poor hygiene habits. Maybe because of where I was born and grew up, people used your attitude toward a clean environment to respect you and judge your morals. I cannot say that they are all the same, but some student’s exhibit antisocial behavior and negative character traits. I find it difficult sometimes to communicate with them about that.
Teachers’ psychological characteristics, such as believing in inequality from daily life interactions, subjective experiences, and their establishment of social stereotypes they faced, usually impact their perceptions and behaviors toward students (Barbier et al., 2022). As part of the school system, teachers may either develop exclusionary perceptions toward some categories of students, shaped by the cultural and religious ecosystem in which they were born and raised, may develop discriminatory attitudes against certain students because of their physical appearances (Wenz and Hoenig, 2020).
4.4.2 Inclusive education training
This section presents criticisms against the availability and quality of existing inclusive programs for teacher training.
Many times, teachers tried their best to assist students in need. Frankly speaking, this issue needs a systematic training program. Until now, we had limited knowledge about the role played by teachers in ensuring effective inclusion in education for all. For my case, I did not receive any training, whether inside or outside school, about this theme. You know, teachers are not equal, but what to do? Though you have raised the question, you cannot go through it in detail.
In developing countries like Chad, no clear inclusive education training was provided to pre-and in-service teachers.
5 Discussion
Inclusive education is a core goal of democratic education and has received considerable attention from scholars and educational systems (Almalky and Alwahbi, 2023; Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2011). However, in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Chad, research on this topic remains scarce. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 23 participants, this study explores teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations regarding inclusive education in Chadian basic education. Specifically, the study examines teachers’ views on inclusive education and its implementation, focusing on their perspectives on the causes and effects of educational exclusion, the unfair treatment of students from diverse backgrounds, and their roles, strategies, and challenges in this context. Based on participants’ viewpoints, the four key findings are discussed under four main points below.
5.1 Teachers’ perceptions of educational exclusion
The first theme that emerged in this discussion concerns teachers’ perceptions of educational exclusion and their evaluations of its impact on learners. The results indicate that participants frequently understand exclusion and disadvantage in terms of religious, sociocultural, political, economic, and ethnic inequalities. The results suggest that teachers perceive exclusion primarily through the lens of structural inequalities embedded in the social system. To effectively foster equitable learning environments, however, educators must possess a comprehensive understanding of learners’ subjective conditions, as well as the pedagogical competence to support the academic and socioemotional development of all students irrespective of background.
During our discussion, several participants identified key determinants such as economic status, ethnicity, language, and religion, but they rarely acknowledged additional factors of exclusion—such as gender, disability, inclusive pedagogy, and teacher or student well-being—in their responses. This omission may indicate a partial limitation or a lack of awareness of the complexities that surround educational exclusion (Hirt et al., 2025). Furthermore, some teachers tended to conceptualize economic, political, and cultural discrimination in terms of its socioemotional manifestations, attributing students’ poor academic performance primarily to individual-level factors such as effort, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. This conception diverges from a substantial body of research demonstrating that socioeconomic and sociocultural disadvantage exerts a structural negative influence on student academic achievement and long-term social mobility (Camden et al., 2020; Li et al., 2023). The current findings suggest that while teachers acknowledge the presence of inequality, they may underestimate the systemic nature of exclusion, often interpreting academic underperformance as because of low motivation or insufficient engagement (Wenz and Hoenig, 2020). Such perceptions underscore the necessity of professional development initiatives aimed at deepening teachers’ conceptual and reflective understanding of educational exclusion and promoting inclusive pedagogical practices that recognize the intersectional dimensions of disadvantage.
5.2 Teachers’ educational inclusion practices
The second theme concerns teachers’ practices of educational inclusion in their daily instructional activities. The findings indicate that teachers conceptually view inclusive education as a multidimensional construct embedded within their professional practices. They emphasized the use of strategies aimed at fostering economic, social, and political integration, thereby narrowing the educational gap between students from disadvantaged backgrounds and their more privileged peers (Anderson, 2021). A critical analysis of the findings reveals that teachers primarily adopted elements of the redistribution and recognition approaches to inclusion.
Redistribution was reflected in teachers’ efforts to provide material and instructional support to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, while recognition was evident in their attempts to value diversity and promote mutual respect in their classroom teaching. Teachers described several strategies that encouraged interaction among students from different linguistic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, thereby cultivating tolerance and intercultural understanding. For example, participants reported using videos, literary texts, and group activities to introduce themes of diversity and cooperation and to guide students through instances of misunderstanding or conflict (Benoliel and Berkovich, 2021). Additionally, group-based learning and heterogeneous seating arrangements were identified as effective methods for promoting inclusive teaching. These methods were thought to improve students’ non-cognitive skills, like empathy, teamwork, and self-control. They also encouraged co-learning, empowerment, and knowledge sharing, and made classroom interactions better overall (Jauhari et al., 2025). Such practices expand the communicative and cultural horizons of students, enabling them to appreciate differences in religion, language, and worldview, while strengthening social cohesion and mutual understanding (Hargreaves, 2012; Veck, 2023).
However, despite these inclusive efforts, certain gaps remain evident and easy to identify. Participants mostly ignored the attitudinal and structural dimensions of exclusion that perpetuate marginalization in education. Furthermore, there was insufficient discourse on representative actions pertaining to extensive economic and political integration, which are vital elements of holistic social and educational inclusion. These findings also suggest that teachers’ interpretations of inclusion remain largely practice-oriented and relational, rather than systemic and transformative, highlighting a need for deeper professional reflection on the ideological and structural roots of exclusion.
5.3 Teachers’ understanding of inclusive education
This study attempts to comprehend the perceptions and actions related to educational inclusion among instructors in classroom teaching and how they align with the requirements of inclusive education. To this end, the study also endeavors to critically unveil the underlying perceptions and practices of teaching and propose suitable interventions.
The research findings revealed that teachers generally adopted neutral positions when considering diverse cultural values, seeking to treat all learners equitably through the lens of common goods equally shared for the education system to be democratically just. The background arguments highlighted in the discussion were that education should remain a non-political space, free from interference. Consequently, when disparities stemming from economic, political, religious, or sociocultural factors are addressed, such conversations are often perceived by teachers as “discussing politics in schools,” leading them to avoid these topics. Possible explanations for this tendency lie in two points. Firstly, the embodied identities of teachers in public schools as civil servants and, secondly, the politically, religiously, and culturally polarized educational ecosystem within which they operate serve as potential factors. These conditions suppress the development of critical consciousness, a necessary attribute that would enable teachers to interrogate structural inequalities (Freire, 2000). These deeply institutionalized and systematized perceptions necessitate explicit and multidisciplinary discussions.
Contrary to common assumptions, providing identical educational content to all learners without regard to their backgrounds does not necessarily constitute inclusion (Armstrong, 2012). The existing literature demonstrated that differentiated classroom practices, which connect students’ differences with their learning expectations, are more beneficial for both academic and social development (Bora, 2024; Shockley et al., 2024). The current study suggests that value-neutral positions largely held by teachers may negatively affect students’ capabilities, particularly regarding the cultivation of democratic dialog. This aligns with scholars who noted that conceiving of classroom practices as neutral spaces is problematic when viewed through the lens of inclusive education (Giroux, 1976, 2014). In other words, classrooms, rather than being neutral democratic spaces, are social microcosms shaped by political, religious, and ideological factors. Schools thus operate within mechanisms of power relations and bureaucratic logic that reproduce disparities generated by the broader social environment. From this perspective, teachers’ attitudes toward educational inclusion should manifest through inclusive pedagogical strategies that expand learning opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and encourage the adoption of inclusive principles and actions (Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2011). Such an orientation also encompasses teacher activism, expressed through engagement in initiatives that address educational disparities both in the classroom and within decision-making processes (Borgonovi and Pokropek, 2021). In addition, the results also indicate that instructors exhibited reluctance to openly address educational exclusion associated with cultural identity, language, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. This reluctance often stems from a desire to avoid potential tensions, a sense of unreadiness to engage with such sensitive issues, or fear of institutional schisms (Cheng et al., 2025).
We then suggest that effective implementation of educational inclusion, therefore, demands boldness, critical reflection, intellectual capability, and sound decision-making to uncover and challenge unjust systemic practices and marginalizing behaviors from the individual to the institutional level. To ensure that inclusion is better understood and practiced among teachers, several enabling conditions are essential: adequate pedagogical and content knowledge (PCK), updated conflict management skills, and structured institutional support. Strong encouragement and supportive reinforcement from educational leaders are imperative, especially given the cultural and political dominance and the democratic immaturity of Chad. Such support can empower teachers to engage in educational inclusion, activism, and meaningful participation, thus contributing to a more equitable and democratically just educational system.
5.4 Challenges faced by teachers in inclusive education practices
The fourth point addresses teachers’ arguments concerning factors that constrained their objectives for effectively implementing inclusive education in classroom teaching. The most evident obstacle was the insufficient attention given to teacher education and training on inclusive education modules. Another significant barrier was teachers’ partial understanding of inclusion, which often resulted in the misrecognition or non-recognition of learners.
As previous studies emphasized, teacher education is a pivotal promoter in preparing educators to become well-informed about inclusion in education (Alkar, 2025). Teachers’ limited comprehension of inclusive education issues and their reluctance to engage in related discussions within schools and classrooms reveal an urgent need for initial and continuous professional training. Respondents also noted the lack of systematic training programs addressing educational exclusion as a critical factor undermining democratic and inclusive teaching practices. Additionally, discriminatory attitudes at the individual level emerged as another major barrier to inclusion. Rooted in misconceptions and biases, some teachers tend to form negative expectations or labels based on learners’ demographic characteristics, leading to unequal attention and orientation (Wenz and Hoenig, 2020). As main agents of education, when teachers devalue the linguistic, cultural, or religious identities of learners, they risk communicating exclusionary messages that make students feel like outsiders, unworthy of belonging or accessing educational opportunities. Such experiences of stigmatization and isolation can profoundly affect students’ identity formation, academic trajectories, and future careers (Wang and Chang, 2025).
These findings highlight the importance and needs of teachers’ deep understanding of inclusion, equality, and democratic education, and of recognizing their own agency and perceptions in promoting equitable practices. Within Chad’s multicultural and multilingual context, teachers must develop the knowledge and reflexivity necessary to cultivate equality and belonging among all students. Linking these findings with previous discussions on teachers’ perceived neutrality, it becomes clear that both attitudinal factors and inadequate training contribute to educational exclusion. Therefore, comprehensive and multidimensional frameworks for teacher education are imperative in Chad, frameworks that explicitly connect issues of disparity with their impact on students, and that aim to embed democracy as a lived practice within schools.
5.5 Justification of the discussed findings
The determinant question arising from this investigation is: why did these four themes emerge as fundamental and critical in teachers’ responses? The answer lies in the profound connection between these themes and teachers’ lived professional realities within an education system struggling to reconcile ideals of equality with a structurally fragmented society. First, teachers operate in bureaucratic environments, oppressive regimes marked by enduring social, cultural, linguistic, religious, and institutional inequalities, which deeply shape their perceptions of exclusion and their understanding of students (Iturra and Gallardo, 2022). Second, their attempts at inclusion and the challenges they faced reveal a striking disjuncture between the political discourse of democratic education and the material realities of the classroom (Matthieu and Junius, 2023). Third, a further tension resides in the cognitive and ideological dimensions of inclusion. While teachers may comprehend the rhetoric of inclusive education, they lack the conceptual and methodological tools to enact it meaningfully. Further, respondents’ responses indicate the influence of limited pre-service training and a lack of in-service professional development opportunities, especially in the inclusive education domain. Finally, structural barriers, such as overcrowded classrooms, high teacher-student ratios, limited professional development, and weak institutional support, compound these challenges (Zak-Doron and Perry-Hazan, 2024).
In fact, the four themes in the findings are not isolated phenomena but interrelated expressions of systemic and historical conditions. They stem from inadequate teacher preparation, insufficient resources, and the persistence of colonially inherited pedagogical traditions that prioritize conformity over reflexivity and hierarchy over dialog. Within such a framework, schools become less a site of liberation than one of social reproduction, where teachers are constrained by ideological and structural forces (Giroux, 2003). Together, these four points illuminate a systemic pattern: teachers emerge as both agents and victims of a system that proclaims inclusivity yet reproduces exclusion (Juutilainen et al., 2024). Their voices call for a reconstruction of inclusion as a democratic, critical, and emancipatory practice, grounded in justice and reflective pedagogy.
6 Conclusion and limitations
Inclusiveness is considered a key element in achieving democratic education. However, in low-income countries, teachers often work in conditions that produce and reproduce social inequality as well as educational exclusion. Addressing these inequalities requires teachers to manage diverse opinions, cultures, and challenges while ensuring equal access for all students. The current study, which employed open-ended questions, examined instructors’ perspectives and practices in inclusive education from N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The findings revealed several key elements, including neutral or insensitive pedagogical strategies; struggles with cultural, economic, and political polarization; uneven resource distribution; and difficulties integrating inclusive policies at both the government and community levels. First, the study suggests that, to address these challenges, teachers must adopt culturally responsive strategies and inclusive pedagogies, with key considerations including multiculturalism, cultural tolerance, respect for different religions, languages, and cultures, ethical attitudes, and the involvement of all stakeholders in decision-making. Second, the study also points out that there is an urgent need to promote theories and philosophies that emphasize education, justice, and inclusion. These frameworks should inform teacher training by comprehensively addressing educational exclusion, incorporating sociocultural and spatial justice, and equipping educators to navigate diverse perspectives effectively. Third, implementing inclusive education programs in teacher training requires targeted efforts to raise awareness at both the school and community levels. The explanation is that teachers should be equipped with updated principles, adequate resources, and the ability to critically reflect on their biases and experiences. Knowledge-based programs, practical strategies, and well-informed teaching methods are essential for ensuring fairness, equity, and effective inclusion. Finally, this empirical study solely relies on interview data; to better grasp the complexities, future research could incorporate quantitative or longitudinal information. Furthermore, future studies could explore specific aspects of inclusive education, such as disability, gender, social class, and geographic or special differences, to strengthen teacher education programs and inclusive practices. Despite these limitations, the study’s findings remain meaningful for theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
Ethical approval was not required for the studies involving humans. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
DD: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. XH: Conceptualization, Investigation, Reviewing, Resources, Funding acquisition, Validation. TX: Methodology, Resources, Writing – original draft & review, Funding acquisition.
Funding
The author(s) declared that financial support was not received for this work and/or its publication.
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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The author(s) declared that Generative AI was not used in the creation of this manuscript.
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Keywords: Chad, inclusive education, in-service teachers, perceptions and practices, challenges and expectations, qualitative research
Citation: Djekourmane D, Huang X and Xu T (2026) Inclusive education in Chad: in-service teachers’ perceptions, practices, challenges, and expectations. Front. Educ. 10:1690636. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1690636
Edited by:
Hussain A. Almalky, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi ArabiaReviewed by:
Abdullah Alwahbi, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi ArabiaMoyagabo Kate Malahlela, University of South Africa, South Africa
Copyright © 2026 Djekourmane, Huang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Xinyi Huang, aHVhbmcueGluLnlpQGZveG1haWwuY29t
†ORCID: Denis Djekourmane, orcid.org/0009-0007-6238-9444