Educational process within the space of inclusive supplementary education: analysis of regional practices

Abstract

Introduction. Nowadays the system of supplementary education for children in the Russian Federation is faced with a challenge: the processes of inclusion, declared by the government educational policy, necessitated the maximum coverage of children of various nosological groups, their active inclusion in classes, development of adapted programs, and creation of special environments. Meantime, the lack of understanding of the goals of supplementary education in the context of inclusion, of scientifically substantiated criteria for success, of specifics of educational support and professional efficiency while working with special needs children leads to substitution of concepts and replication of formalization, to quasi-activity. This work aims to identify and classify the most successful practices in supplementary education that includes children with health limitations and disabilities, to develop tools for scientific and methodological support of the current needs of the teaching community. Materials and methods. The study involved teachers and administrative workers of supplementary and general education from 78 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The total number of respondents was 161 people. The content of this paper is based on the survey method, which made it possible to study the current state of inclusion of children with special needs and disabilities in the system of supplementary education. Through author’s questionnaires and semi-structured interview the practices of “inclusive” supplementary education were analysed. Methods of mathematical statistics (descriptive statistics) and content analysis were used to process the research results. Results. According to the data received, supplementary education covers about 14% of children with disabilities and health limitations. The most vulnerable is the tourism and local history line of work (1.2%); natural sciences field also requires enhanced attention, since it is implemented only in 1.2% of the total number of regions; technical activities were announced in 5% of the constituent entities, social and humanitarian – in 18.1%, physical training and sports – in 27.2%. At the same time, we discovered a high level of readiness in the professional community to include special needs children in mastering programs of various orientations, the prevailing importance of the human factor, and competent management strategies. Conclusion. As a result of the analysis of regional platforms of supplementary education 5 models for the implementation of adapted supplementary educational programs in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation were identified.