COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE MAINSTREAM AND SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN A RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Communication in an organization such as the school is important, especially the social and working communication among teachers. When communication among the teachers is effective, there would be a collaboration between them in work, especially when implementing the school curricular and co-curricular programmes successfully. In schools where there are two educational streams; the mainstream and the Special Education Integration Programme, it is vital that effective communication is given priority. This study describes and discusses the characteristics of work and social communication between the Special Education teachers and the mainstream teachers of a local rural primary school in Selangor, Malaysia. Four teachers from each stream were selected as respondents for the study. The findings revealed that there appeared to be good teachers’ communication from both streams. These teachers have collaborated in executing their tasks and they have developed a good rapport and effective communication in other fields of work as well such as co-curricular activities and other school activities such as the Parents Teacher Association meetings and Staff developments and sports. The findings through interviews with the teacher respondents and documents showed that the teachers have practiced their social intelligence, have used their interpersonal communication skills and have adopted a social network, ‘WhatsApp’ application in their communication in school. The school administrator has played its part too in establishing effective communication between superiors and subordinates.

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