article · African Journal of Disability
Young people with disabilities continue to face under-representation in technical and vocational education and training within Zimbabwe. An institutional ethnographic assessment reveals that learner participation is shaped by intersecting social norms, institutional rules, and practical constraints. Key facilitators for learners include supportive instructors, inclusive teaching methods, strong community backing, positive social attitudes, and accessible facilities. However, learners face substantial barriers, such as inadequate government funding, family poverty, caregiver fatigue, literacy prerequisites, travel distances, and physical inaccessibility. Specific disability types and tensions between community customs and institutional regulations also limit engagement. Improving vocational inclusion requires strengthening foundational education access, developing instructor capabilities, and securing sustainable state financial assistance to relieve economic pressures on households. Mapping these institutional mechanisms across pre-enrolment, vocational training, and subsequent employment transitions provides clear pathways to reorganise vocational systems for genuine inclusion.
Vocational education offers critical pathways to employment and financial autonomy, yet youth with disabilities frequently face systemic exclusion. Identifying the specific institutional practices, financial burdens, and social dynamics that restrict learner access helps educational leaders and policymakers design targeted interventions. Addressing these structural obstacles ensures training centres can better support marginalised learners from pre-enrolment through to employment in low-resource environments.
The abstract does not indicate a commercial application pathway, as it focuses on qualitative policy and institutional analysis. However, vocational practitioners, educational administrators, and policymakers in low-resource settings can use the findings to inform the design of inclusive training curricula, instructor development programmes, and support mechanisms. The insights represent early-stage, policy-oriented guidance rather than a market-ready commercial product.
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Background: People with disabilities remain under-represented in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), despite global and regional policies promoting their inclusion. Objectives: This study examined the barriers and facilitators to the inclusion of youth with disabilities in Zimbabwe's TVET programmes. Methods: Situated in a critical qualitative paradigm, we utilised an institutional ethnographic (IE) design to explore how youth with disabilities experienced inclusive TVET. Data were generated through observations and semi-structured interviews with 11 youth with disabilities and two principals at inclusive centres. We used IE and the Listening Guide to map how institutional policies, practices and social norms coordinate learners' participation and lived experiences. Results: Participation in TVET was influenced by intersecting institutional and social factors. Facilitators encompassed positive instructor conduct, inclusive pedagogy, robust family and community support, favourable societal attitudes and accessible infrastructure. Conversely, participation was hindered by limited government support, caregiver fatigue, families' low socioeconomic status, disability type, literacy requirements, inaccessible infrastructure, long distances and conflicts between social norms and institutional rules. Conclusion: Achieving inclusive TVET in Zimbabwe requires aligning instructor capacity, accessible foundational education and sustainable government funding to mitigate families' weak socioeconomic status. Contribution: Beyond identifying barriers and facilitators, this study offers a novel methodological contribution, unravelling the invisible, text-mediated forces that coordinate learners with disabilities' experiences across pre-enrolment, training and post-training work transitions. It provides practitioners and policymakers in low-resource settings with a user-focused mapping of how institutional mechanisms can be reconfigured to foster authentic inclusion.
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DOI: 10.4102/ajod.v15i0.2030
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