Building inclusive preschool classrooms: How desirable and feasible is a set of strategies that facilitate teacher-child relationships?

Abstract

Positive teacher-child relationships promote children’s engagement, as children feel more secure to explore and participate in free or oriented activities. For children with disabilities, a context wherein they can receive the support to maintain a positive engagement in different activities is even more relevant. A scarcity of research exists on how to promote ECEC quality, namely, how to facilitate teacher-child interactions in inclusive environments. This study aims to evaluate preschool teachers’ opinions about the desirability and feasibility of a set of empirically validated strategies to improve teacher-child interactions in ECEC classrooms, for the group and children with disabilities. The participants were 89 Portuguese preschool teachers. Based on a non-systematic literature review, a questionnaire composed of 22 strategies to facilitate teacher-child interactions (in 4 dimensions: emotionally responsive interactions, classroom management, attend to children’s perspectives, and scaffolding learning) was developed. Along with the questionnaire, a set of socio-demographic variables was also collected. ECEC teachers scored significantly higher in the desirability subscale compared with the feasibility subscale in all dimensions and at both the child and the group level. This gap between teachers’ perceived desirability and feasibility provides important insights regarding the dimensions which are important to reinforce in ECEC teachers’ education and professional development. The mean difference between the desirability and feasibility subscales registered a higher effect size at the child’s level than at the group’s level, confirming that the inclusion of children with disabilities in preschool settings remains a challenge. Moreover, the effect size was small to moderate in the Emotionally Responsive Interactions dimension for both child and group levels. These results are aligned with previous studies stating that among different self-identified dimensions for improvement, emotional support is the less evoked by ECEC teachers. Across all dimensions, the main reason teachers give for difficulty in feasibility, both at the group and child’s level, is lack of knowledge. Overall, understanding the reasons teachers attribute to the difference between the strategies’ desirability and feasibility informs the assessment of teacher education needs and might be operationalized as a new observation instrument.

Differentiated Methodological Strategies for Inclusive Education in Basic Education: Scoping Review

“…According to Table 2, it can be seen that in terms of the number of authors per research, of the total (n=30) studies, 8 correspond to an author (Cawthon, 2001;Deroche, 2013;Haelermans, 2022;Malebese, 2017Malebese, , 2019Motitswe, 2014;Saloviita, 2018;Vassiliades, 2022) . , 2018;Piliouras & Evangelou, 2012;Reina et al, 2022;Rietdijk et al, 2018;Sanches-Ferreira et al, 2022;Zerai et al, 2023).…”

“…Regarding the research methodology, the approach, design and instruments have been considered. Of 30 articles, 8 are quantitative (Magableh & Abdullah, 2022;Peterson-Ahmad et al, 2018;Haelermans, 2022;Saloviita, 2018;Furrer et al, 2020;Palacios-Garay et al, 2020;Sanches-Ferreira et al, 2022;Reina et al, 2022)of which we have a quasi-experimental (n=2), pre-experimental (n=1), experimental (n=1), non-experimental (n=2) design ), as well as 2 unspecified. Regarding the instruments, 7 use questionnaires and 1 does not specify.…”

“…Regarding population areas and regions, these studies appear with a higher incidence in South Africa (n=4), Australia (n=3), United States (n=2), Portugal (n=2), Netherlands (n= 2), Spain (n=2), Canada (n=2), Switzerland (n=1), Finland (n=1), Bhutan (n=1), Greece (n=1), Israel (n=1 ), Eritrea (n=1), Nigeria (n=1), Peru (n=1), Argentina (n=1). The present study for analysis and synthesis purposes has considered six macrocategories corresponding to differentiation in the context by countries (Haelermans, 2022;Magableh & Abdullah, 2022;Maia Ferreira et al, 2020;Onyishi & Sefotho, 2020;Rietdijk et al, 2018;Saloviita, 2018;Zerai et al, 2023); six articles correspond to differentiation in school study areas (Easa & Blonder, 2022;Malebese, 2017Malebese, , 2019Malebese et al, 2019;Padmadewi et al, 2017;Reina et al, 2022), five studies on differentiation in the classroom (Deroche, 2013;Furrer et al, 2020;Gibbs & Beamish, 2021;Harris et al, 2022;Hyry-Beihammer & Hascher, 2015)-(Peterson-Ahmad et al, 2018Motitswe, 2014;Palacios-Garay et al, 2020;Orozco & Moriña, 2020;Piliouras & Evangelou, 2012), two articles about averaging , effective strategies (Vassiliades, 2022;McGhie-Richmond et al, 2007), five articles address differentiation and disability (Nthibeli et al, 2022;Dukpa et al, 2021;Bolourian et al, 2022;Sanches-Ferreira et al, 2022;Cawthon, 2001). The articles in turn address microcategories, which are the result of topics and categories addressed in a precise way by each article.…”

“…-Inclusive strategies for deaf people (Cawthon, 2001). (Nthibeli et al, 2022;Dukpa et al, 2021;Bolourian et al, 2022;Sanches-Ferreira et al, 2022;Cawthon, 2001).…”

Inclusive Approaches in Italian Early Childhood Education and Care: The View of Practitioners

“…Moreover, all practitioners stressed the importance of making children's efforts and achievements visible and communicating them to the families. The professionals realised that, when talking about disabilities, they might concentrate on children's difficulties and failures, whereas it was essential to give value to strengths and progress and to give children explicit feedback to start a virtuous circle and encourage their continued participation, as reported also by [23,27]. As also reported in an Italian ministerial document about ECEC, an educational context is inclusive when it values individual differences, recognizes and develops potential, focuses on the individual, and makes everyone feel active and involved in their own personal growth path [23].…”