Abstract:

The text discusses the results of an extensive quantitative study carried out in the Czech Republic in 2018 and 2019 on a sample of 924 respondents from among primary school teachers.

A significant change in education legislation was introduced in the Czech Republic in 2016. One of the aims of this change was to promote gradual implementation of the principles of inclusive education in teaching practice. The Czech Republic has long been one of the countries where a significant proportion of pupils with special educational needs were educated outside the mainstream. In practice, the efforts to promote inclusive education are thus received very inconsistently by teachers.

The research was therefore focused on the evaluation of selected aspects of inclusive education in the Czech education system from the perspective of the above mentioned target group. The partial results of this study point to the relationship between the level of understanding of the basic attributes of inclusive education and the degree of the teachers’ pro-integration or, on the contrary, pro-segregation orientation. Another important variable is the self-assessment of the teachers’ individual professional degree of certainty and readiness to educate pupils with special educational needs in relation to the pro-integration or pro-segregation orientation in teachers.

The research was inspired by important studies that confirm the relationship between selected didactic competencies of teachers, self-efficacy of teachers and their attitudes towards inclusive education (Urton, Wilbert, & Hennemann, 2014; Weisel & Dror, 2006). The results of the research, being of pedeutological character, clearly point to the need for targeted further education of teachers and the development of educators’ professional competences that have a demonstrable link to their pro-integration or, on the contrary, to their pro-segregation orientation. We consider strengthening the pro-integration orientation of teachers and the targeted development of their professional competences in relation to the education of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream education the basis for further development of inclusive education in the Czech Republic and other post-communist countries.

Keywords:

Inclusive education, special educational needs, teacher, segregation, integration, professional development.