Early childhood teachers' understanding of inclusive education and associated practices: reflections from Greece

Abstract

This paper focuses on Greek regular and special preschool teachers' understanding of inclusion; their views about the engagement of children with disabilities in typical day routines/activities; and their preferred strategies for facilitating children's engagement in classroom activities. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 77 teachers (45 regular and 32 special educators) drawn from 47 preschool mainstream settings in Greece. The analysis revealed that teachers hold conflicting and restrictive beliefs about inclusive education. Further, the teachers' accounts indicated that most of the children with disabilities were experiencing significant difficulties in their engagement during free-play as well as structured/semi-structured activities. Lastly, teachers identified a range of strategies that they deployed for promoting children's involvement in classroom activities. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to shift away from a narrow individualistic-deficit assumption of disability towards a socio-constructivist conceptualisation of 'diversity' and the establishment of genuinely inclusive school cultures.

Policies, Practices, and Attitudes toward Inclusive Education: The Case of Greece

“…Greece, despite the supportive inclusive legislation, still faces considerable barriers toward the implementation of inclusion promoting a divisive policy towards children with specific learning difficulties and disabilities (Fyssa and Vlachou 2015;Fyssa et al 2014). According to the information from the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, the student population in 2012 was 1,131,901 in Greece, including 801,101 students in primary education and 330,800 students in secondary education.…”

Preservice Turkish Teachers’ Views and Perceived Competence Related to Inclusive Education

“…The PTs pointed out regarding the classroom arrangement that effective inclusive education could be offered with improved desks, whiteboards with enhanced angle of view and classrooms enriched with materials. Studies in the relevant literature, on the other hand, argue that ISs require much more customized classroom technology and material support (Sadioğlu et al, 2013;Fyssa et al, 2014;Brydges and Mkandawire, 2017). In addition to all these, the PTs pointed out that use of adequate and appropriate heat, light and color in classroom environment was important.…”

“…Studies in the relevant literature on teachers teaching inclusive education classes and PTs generally focus on perceptions related to inclusive education and inclusion students (ISs) (Brydges and Mkandawire, 2017) conceptions (Fyssa et al, 2014) views (Opdal et al, 2001;Horne and Timmons, 2009;Dalğar, 2011;Sadioğlu et al, 2013;Fyssa et al, 2014;Nel et al, 2014;Bailey et al, 2015;Hu et al, 2017) attitudes (Avramidis and Kalyva, 2010;Rakap and Kaczmarek, 2010;Subban and Mahlo, 2017) and competencies (Mrsnik, 2003;Babaoğlan and Yılmaz, 2010). In those studies, researchers have handled debates about problems experienced in inclusive education, causes of these problems, solution offers for these problems, and causes of failure of inclusive education.…”

“…Indeed, training offered with respect to inclusive education increase educators" competencies (Mrsnik, 2003). It has turned out that the topics about which educators needed to receive information are special education counseling, special teaching methods aimed at inclusive education students, instructional design, material support, time management, preparation and use of appropriate methods and techniques to assess achievement, and management of problematic behaviors arising with regard to students attending inclusive education (Opdal et al, 2001;Jordan et al, 2009;Rakap and Kaczmarek, 2010;Sadioğlu et al, 2013;Fyssa et al, 2014;Bailey et al, 2015;Brydges and Mkandawire, 2017). Based on this, it can be said that teachers teaching inclusive classes experience problems in teaching due to shortage of educational materials as well as time constraints in educational practices (McGarvey and Morgan, 1996).…”

Early Intervention of Kindergarten Children at Risk for Developmental Disabilities: A Greek Paradigm

“…Till now students from Preschool Education Departments do not receive any practical training in inclusive early education programs, nor do students in the Department of Special Needs Education, University of Thessaly. This might explain the limited research on early intervention in Greece, which deals mainly with teachers' opinions over early intervention [44,45] or quality evaluations of early intervention programs [46] or experimental intervention programs [47,48]. Preschool teachers' needs for special education training have been expanding.…”