Opinions of Teachers on Virtual Education Process of Primary School Students with Disabilities Continuing Inclusive Education

Abstract

With the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world in 2019, human life has moved to a different dimension. Accordingly, the education process was carried out remotely in Turkey as well as in the rest of the world. Virtual education was not a new concept for societies, but conducting the entire education process remotely was a very different practice and this practice brought many problems with it. In this context, this study aims to determine the opinions of teachers after the pandemic regarding the virtual education process of primary school students with disabilities who continue inclusive education settings. For this purpose, qualitative research was conducted and data were collected by conducting semi-structured individual interviews with 10 primary school teachers who have students with disabilities in their class. The data were analyzed by content analysis. Research results revealed that teachers did not have any problems in involving students with disabilities who were supported by their parents and who did not have any infrastructure problems in terms of technical equipment, but they have problems in including some children in virtual education. Teachers had difficulty in following the education of students with disabilities during the virtual education process implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, it is a very important issue that our national action plans are ready for the education process of students with disabilities, especially for situations such as pandemics and natural disasters that have recently occurred in our country.