Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education of Pre-Primary Education Students

Abstract

Inclusive education is an internationally respected approach within education. However, Slovakia has a long tradition in segregated education. In 2010, the Slovak Republic ratified the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Based on its ratification, Slovakia committed itself to ensure that people with disabilities shall not be excluded from the general education system due to their disability. Children with disabilities should too, together with others, have access to inclusive, high quality and free education in the community they live in. This concept of education also puts specific requirements on teacher training. Education should also be focused on strengthening the pro-inclusive attitudes of student teachers. In inclusive education, it is desirable for teachers at schools to follow the philosophy of inclusive education and thus support the idea of inclusion within education by encouraging an inclusive approach. We also tried to find out whether there is real development of pro-inclusive attitudes by administering research tools for measuring the attitudes of student teachers towards inclusive education. For this purpose, we used the SACIE-R questionnaire (Forlin, Earle, Loreman, & Sharma, 2011). Using factor analysis of their responses, we identified the main dimensions of student attitudes. In this study, we focus only on the analysis of the data obtained by students at one of the faculties of education in Slovakia in the field of preschool and elementary education. Based on the analyzed data, it appears that despite the fact that the content of our study program prepares the future teachers for inclusive education of people with sensory disabilities (visual and auditory), the teachers at mainstream schools seem to be mostly afraid of educating this group of people. The chapter is the result of a research project within the VEGA project No. 1/0732/19 titled Teachers’ Attitudes to Diversity in Relation to the Selected Characteristics of Teachers.