Abstract:

The success of inclusion is multi-causal, but probably the most important factor of all is whether an important actor in the educational process - the teacher - has embraced the idea. The aim of the research was to investigate teachers' attitudes towards inclusion in schools with a majority of pupils from the majority population and in schools with a majority of pupils from marginalised Roma communities. At the same time, the relationship between the length of experience and teachers' attitudes in these 6 primary schools was investigated. The research sample consisted of 109 teachers (14 men, 95 women) working in 4 schools with a majority of majority population and 58 teachers (10 men, 48 women) from 2 schools with a majority of pupils from marginalized Roma communities. The average length of experience as a teacher was the same for both groups of teachers - 18 years and ranged from 0 to 42-45 years. The questionnaire used to measure attitudes towards inclusion was The Multidimensional Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES), which measures the cognitive, affective and behavioural components of attitudes towards inclusion and can also be used to measure overall attitudes towards inclusion. The results show that there is no difference in teachers' attitudes towards inclusion in Slovakia between teachers who work in schools with pupils from marginalised Roma communities and teachers who work in schools with pupils from the majority population. However, an interesting finding was that while in schools with a majority of pupils from the majority population, teachers' attitudes towards inclusion were not related to the length of experience, in schools with a majority of pupils from marginalised Roma communities, longer experience was related to lower scores on all components of attitudes towards inclusion, as well as to lower overall scores on all components of attitudes towards inclusion. It can be assumed that the higher demands of the teaching profession on teachers working with pupils from marginalised communities may therefore be reflected in changes in their attitudes over time. These results point to the importance of nurturing teachers working with higher-need student populations so that they remain open to equal opportunity after years of practice and their attitudes towards inclusion remain as positive as they were at the beginning of their careers.

Keywords:

Pupil from marginalized community, attitude to inclusion, teacher, length of teaching experience.