Bridging the Gap in Child Safeguarding: Teachers' Interpretation of Safeguarding Policies and Perceived Competence in Inclusive Schools (A Phenomenological Study)

Abstract

This qualitative phenomenological study interprets the experiences of teachers who work with students with disabilities in inclusive schools in Malang, Indonesia. In the safeguarding context, although existing literature has extensively examined safeguarding policies and/or programmatic effectiveness, less attention has been paid to the psychological and professional burdens experienced by teachers within high-risk contexts of victimization faced by children with disabilities. To address this gap, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 teachers from inclusive primary and secondary schools. Data were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) and interpreted through Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological framework to situate teachers’ experiences within interconnected micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-level systems. Through three main themes, the findings illustrate how teachers interpret safeguarding challenges as embedded within structural and institutional constraints, including the absence of clear written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), limited competency-based training, and fragmented inter-professional collaboration within schools. Rather than attributing safeguarding difficulties to individual moral shortcomings, teachers’ accounts highlight tensions arising from role ambiguity, elevated emotional labor, and systemic misalignment between national policy mandates and school-level implementation. Teachers also describe how they navigate these difficulties through adaptive agency, including developing informal networks and external support mechanisms to compensate for institutional gaps. These practices are interpreted as efforts to support professional role fulfillment while navigating the demands and risks associated with implementing child safeguarding in inclusive school settings.