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The attitudes of elementary school teachers towards the concept of inclusive education

Publication at Faculty of Education |
2018

Abstract

The implementation of the inclusive education model is one of the key issues of contemporary education in the Czech Republic, but in practice the promotion of the system of inclusive education oft en encounter diff erent views of educators - the described study therefore maps out attitudes to the phenomenon of inclusion among 174 teachers from six elementary schools in the Central Bohemian region. The data processed in the research was derived from texts created by teachers within workshops focused on inclusive education.

Th e overall assessment of the phenomenon of inclusion among the participants slightly outweighed the negative attitudes: in the surveyed sample, 100 teachers disagreed with inclusive education, 66 participants agreed with inclusion in education and the remaining 8 teachers did not even agree or disagree. As a positive contribution to inclusive education, participants have stated that pupils with special educational needs learn to live in a common college and overcome natural obstacles, but also that other pupils learn solidarity, empathy and mutual co-operation.

Opponents of inclusion emphasized that pupils with special educational needs would learn more in special schools, and that the presence of these pupils leads to a slowdown in the pace of teaching and lowering standard of teaching, and also mentioned the excessive demands placed on inadequately prepared teachers and a general unpreparedness of the educational system, accenting too high a number of pupils in classes. The results of the survey clearly show the need for further education of teachers in order to let them adopt the concept of inclusive education.