Abstract:

The objective of the paper is to present the data of an extensive qualitative research study investigating the attitudes and opinions of the teaching staff concerning inclusion.

Since 1 September 2016 an amendment to the Education Act has been in effect, which is known as the ‘inclusive amendment’, the purpose of which is to introduce the inclusive form of education of children with special educational needs on a much wider scale than previous amendments.

The preliminary research has shown that these changes are the source of many concerns among teachers. One of the key factors in the course and success/failure of the inclusive approach in education is undoubtedly the teaching staff (teachers, special education teachers, assistant teachers), whose attitudes, competences and skills are crucial to the results of working with these children and the whole class. For this reason, the authors attempted to investigate teachers’ opinions and attitudes.

The data collection method was a questionnaire, which was sent to all elementary schools in the Czech Republic. The number of returned questionnaires was 2,467.

The paper presents teachers’ attitudes and opinions concerning inclusion, and describes their needs and their attitudes to legislative changes.

The results suggest that teachers need more support, including a lower number of students per class and assistant teachers.

Keywords:

Teachers, inclusive education, attitudes, quantitative research.