Abstract:

The paper presents a part of the unique research study implemented as a part of project IGA/ IGA_PdF_2019_024: Research on inclusion of individuals with special needs realized by Faculty of Education Palacky University Olomouc in Czech Republic. The team of researchers consisted of academic staff, pedagogical staff with experience in primary schools and students of doctor´s and master´s study programs. The main goal of this part of the research study was to find out, analyze and describe attitudes of a school special education teacher in the context of the education of pupils with special needs at the 2nd level of primary schools in the Czech Republic. The partial goals of the research study were the analysis of specifics of the communication and relations, the analysis of specifics of the administration and the analysis of the specifics of the work roles of the research sample. A qualitative research design was chosen to fulfill the research plan. The method of the data collection in the form of semi-structured interviews was used for the research survey. The data collection took place in the months of May - June 2019. The obtained interviews were transcribed and used for a subsequent analysis.

The open coding method was used for data analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1999) individually for each interview. Subsequently these concepts were interconnected and categorized (Hendl, 2016). Then the results were processed by using the "card layout" technique, where the individual categories were structured into thematic units of a specific shape or a line. Based on this arrangement was prepared an accompanying text. (Švaříček & Šeďová, 2014). The research sample consisted of 20 participants. The specification of the research sample was defined from several meetings of focus groups, which were attended by selected primary school teachers and experts from the University. Thematic areas of semi-structured interviews were defined within the focus groups on the area of the communication and relations, the area of the administration and specifics of the professional role of the school special education teacher.

The research showed considerable positive developments, but also significant risks associated with school counselling activities. These primarily result from the fact that the vision of equal access to education is still a vision but not a reality. One of the major reasons for this is the conservatism of our system of education, which is often reluctant to accept changes.

Keywords:

Special education teacher, inclusive education, primary school, qualitative design of research.