My name is Nozwelo Shanda. I am a Research Assistant on the teacher empowerment for disability inclusion project. I'm going to talk about the research methods we used in our TEDI research on the educational needs of learners with severe to profound sensory or intellectual impairments in South Africa. In this video, I will focus on the four topics. The first one, the aims and research questions for this project. The second one, the research design. Followed by the study context and participants. Lastly, the recruitment, data collection, and analysis process we followed. In this research study, we wanted to understand the educational needs of learners with disabilities, so that we could work out what teacher education would meet those needs. We asked the following research questions. The first one, what are the educational needs of learners with severe to profound sensory or intellectual impairments? And, what teacher education is required for teachers to be able to meet these needs? Because we want to understand the educational needs of learners with disabilities, it was important to draw on multiple perspectives from key stakeholders, the learners have direct and indirect contact with in their education. Thus addressing the learner needs holistically. These key stakeholders were government officials in the education system, teachers, school management team members, parents, and then the learners themselves. To conduct the study, we received ethical approval from our university, the Departments of Education in three different provinces in South Africa, the Western Cape, Gauteng, and Eastern Cape, as well as a letter of endorsement from the National Government Department of Higher Education and Training. With respect to the research design, we used a qualitative design drawing on the qualitative description method. Looking at the study context, we conducted interviews in eight schools, six special schools, and two full-service schools across the three selected provinces. In South African context, a special school is a school which specializes and is equipped to address the learning needs of learners with disabilities. Whereas, a full-service school is a mainstream school which is equipped to address the needs of learners who experience learning barriers. We chose schools from three provinces because we aimed to represent a range of better resourced and lesser resourced areas. The six special schools represented two schools for learners with severe intellectual disabilities, two for learners who are blind or have low vision, and two for learners who are deaf. Two of this schools also had hostels where learners lived. When collecting data, we interviewed a range of stakeholders including provincial and district education officials, school management team members, as well as teachers, learners, and parents. To note, we interviewed learners who are 14 years and above, and we received signed consent from their guardians and signed accent forms from the learners. In our interviews with the different participant groups, we followed a semi-structured approach. In that, while we had a set of questions, that participants were given the flexibility to include additional information. For the provincial and district officials, the questions focused on the nature of full-service and special schools. Interviews with the school management team members focused on monitoring and support received from the district officials. The questions for the teachers explored their personal experiences teaching learners with disability, and training and support they have received in this regard. For learners, we explored their experiences of having a disability, and what training they feel teachers should receive in order to meet their learning needs. Lastly, the focus group discussions with parents concentrated on the experiences of having a child with a disability, and what training and other resources they think teachers need to better their children's learning environment. When collecting data, sign language interpreters and braille was provided when needed. The main mode of communication during the interviews was English. However, the study included participants using some of the local languages including Afrikaans and isiZulu way translations to English were done. Moving on to data analysis. All the data for this study was transcribed and uploaded onto an online application for analysis. After this, several meetings were held, where we finalize the quotes according to the existing and emerging themes. From there, team members were allocated sections to write about the finalist teams. In conclusion, our TEDI research aimed to understand the diverse needs of learners with disabilities from different perspectives. Using the qualitative design helped us to gain an in-depth understanding of the barriers to learning learners with disability experience, leading us to identify teacher education that addresses those needs.