Abstract:

In 2010, the Slovak Republic ratified the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Based on its ratification Slovakia committed itself to ensure that people with disabilities shall not be excluded from the general education system due to their disability. Children with disabilities should too, together with others, have access to inclusive, high quality and free education in the community they live in. In inclusive education, it is desirable for teachers at schools to follow the philosophy of inclusive education and thus support the idea of inclusion within education by encouraging an inclusive approach. We also tried to find out whether there is real development of pro-inclusive attitudes by administering research tools for measuring the attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education. For this purpose, we used the TAIS (Saloviita, 2015). In this study, we focus only on the analysis of the data obtained by lower secondary teachers. We have identified several factors that positively influence teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. The obtained data are analyzed in relation to the length of pedagogical practice of the respondents, completed education, completion of inclusive training, involvement in projects of inclusive practice. The paper is the result of a research project within the VEGA project No. 1/0732/19 titled Teachers' Attitudes to Diversity in Relation to the Selected Characteristics of Teachers.

References:
[1] Saloviita, T. (2015). Measuring pre-service teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education: Psychometric properties of the TAIS scale. Teaching and Teacher Education, 52 (2015), 66- 72,http:ffdx.doi.orgf10.1016/j.tate2015.09.003

Keywords:

Inclusive education, lower education teacher, attitudes to inclusion.