Knowledge and attitudes of school principals towards childhood hearing loss and hearing services: A cross-sectional survey to support the implementation of inclusive education in Samoa

OBJECTIVES: To assess the knowledge and attitudes among school principals towards childhood hearing loss and hearing services to support the implementation of inclusive education in Samoa. Educators are uniquely positioned to advocate for inclusive education in their classrooms, and may be among the first professionals to suspect hearing loss in their young students. Given the well-known impacts of childhood hearing loss on learning and development, educators therefore play a vital role in referring students for an ear and hearing health assessment. METHODS: A cross-sectional convenience sampling design and bilingual questionnaire were used (English/Samoan). School principals attending the annual conference for educators of Samoa over 4 days in June 2022 were invited to anonymously complete a 23-item questionnaire on childhood hearing loss and hearing services. Participants were required to respond to each statement with either ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘unsure’. The questionnaire investigated general knowledge of healthy hearing and hearing loss, knowledge of causes and risk factors of hearing loss, knowledge of identification and intervention for hearing loss and the attitudes towards students with hearing loss. RESULTS: 95.4% of the 109 participants agreed that healthy hearing is important, and 97.2% felt that childhood hearing loss is an important problem in Samoa. Participants agreed that hearing loss adversely impacts the interaction with peers (95.4%), listening in the classroom (94.5%), speech and language development (93.6%), classroom behaviour (88.1%) and reading skills (85.3%). 97.2% of participants felt that students with hearing loss should have the same opportunities as their normal-hearing counterparts, and 92.7% would include students with hearing loss in their classroom. 94.5% were keen to learn more about childhood hearing loss. There were no significant differences in response proportions between variable subgroups. CONCLUSION: Overall, the results displayed high levels of knowledge and very positive attitudes among school principals in Samoa towards their students with hearing loss.