Abstract
Inclusive education in pre-school education is a general policy and practice in European countries, but implementation of the policy varies from country to country depending on institutional, legal factors, funding, access to pre-school education and pedagogical concepts. The aim of the study is to analyze the practice and innovation of inclusive education in pre-school institutions in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Features of the practice of inclusive education for pre-school children have been determined on the basis of qualitative and quantitative methodology, content analysis and statistical analysis. The results indicate that there are differences in the inclusive education of pre-school children in these countries. Therefore, the practice of inclusive education in the Czech Republic is very different where children of pre-school age are highly involved in formal education, study in special groups to a greater extent and in completely separate educational institutions, and to a lesser extent in special pre-school institutions. Segregation in the Czech Republic is more intense, and therefore the level of inclusion is much lower. It was found that models of inclusion in pre-school education institutions in these countries can be defined as a model of full inclusion in Poland and Hungary (79.68% and 82.18%, respectively), partial inclusion in Slovakia and the Czech Republic (64.85% and 19.74% respectively). The Czech Republic differs significantly from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in inclusive education for pre-school children.
Highlights
Inclusion is a response to the human rights movement in the context of equality for all citizens regardless of nationality, gender, age, socio-economic characteristics disability in all spheres of social life
According to the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (Table 1), the actual number of children studying in Poland was 428,356 thousand people, in the Czech Republic - 328,802 thousand people, in Hungary - 360,771 thousand people, in Slovakia - 174,448 thousand people
This study proves the existence of challenges in the practice of inclusion in pre-school education institutions in Eastern Europe through various institutional, legal, socio-economic factors
Summary
Inclusion is a response to the human rights movement in the context of equality for all citizens regardless of nationality, gender, age, socio-economic characteristics disability in all spheres of social life. In Europe, educational policy of inclusion is moving targeted towards a more consistent focus on inclusion, which means “provisions to ensure effective education in mainstream classrooms” (Fettes & Karamouzian, 2018) This requires and actualizes the problems of researching the practice of inclusive education in the countries of Eastern Europe, which is a poorly studied subject today. The paradigm has transformed, which included a special attention to organizations that themselves create full inclusion barriers In such conditions, the question arose of ensuring equal educational conditions for educational institutions for all children (Avramidis and Norwich 2002; Watkins and Meijer 2016; European Parliament 2017). The advocacy of idealistic policies at the international, national levels and the mandatory legislation do not guarantee the implementation of the policy of inclusion in practice This requires learning about the practice of inclusion in pre-school institutions. The purpose of this study is to analyze the practice and innovation of inclusive education in pre-school institutions in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia
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