PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS ON THE INTERACTION DIFFICULTIES WITH STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH

Given the recognition that teachers’ conceptions on diversity are key to ensure educational quality, this study aims to recognize what pre-service teachers think about the communication and relationship difficulties that can exist between students with special educational needs and the agents who interact with them in the school. To that purpose, 34 students enrolled on the Teacher Training Degree for Primary Education of the University of Alicante (Spain) participated in the study. The data were collected through the implementation of a semi-structured questionnaire with three opened questions regarding the recognition of the communication and interaction difficulties with teachers, peers and family. The information was processed with the qualitative analysis software AQUAD 6. The participants’ contributions revealed, in most cases, that pre-service teachers still located students with special educational needs as the main source of the communication and interaction difficulties. This fact implies the necessity to work, from the first training stages, to guarantee the development of fairer and more adequate teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards diversity.