RELATIONS BETWEEN TEACHER AND A CHILD WITH DISABILITY: EXPERIENCES OF TEACHERS FROM PRESCHOOL FACILITIES IN SERBIA AND CROATIA

Abstract

Relationship between teacher and a child with disability stands out as one of the most important factors of preschool inclusive practice and care quality. Despite that, there is a small number of studies that have dealt with this topic. Still, recent studies that focused on teachers’ perspective and experiences in inclusive practice indicated high level of professional stress, low sense of competence and motivation for work with the children with disabilities and generally negative attitudes towards inclusion in preschool, which can lead to lower capacities for developing high quality relationship with the child. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of teacher domain variables (work experience with children with disabilities, perceived contribution of basic education and continuous professional training seminars for work with children with disabilities, self-assessed motivation and competence in work with children with disabilities) on teacher-child relationship quality, measured by two dimensions (closeness and conflict) of Student-teacher relationship scale - SF [1]. The sample included 64 preschool teachers from Serbia and Croatia (32 from each country, paired in age and the overall work experience). This research is a part of a wider study on the capacities of early education system to provide quality experiences for children from different vulnerable groups. Both teachers from Serbia and Croatia gave average estimations of their motivation and competence for work with child with disability and their assessment of contribution of formal education and training seminars to the quality of their current work in inclusive setting. When it comes to relationship quality, both groups had higher average scores on closeness than on conflict dimension. Teachers from Serbia had statistically higher average score on conflict dimension than teachers from Croatia (t=2.078, df (49), p<.05). In Serbian teachers’ subsample, regression analysis model (predictors included previously mentioned teacher domain variables) for closeness dimension was significant (R=.802, R²=.67, F=4.51, p<.05). The perceived contribution of formal education (initial professional training) to the work with children with disabilities had significant effects on closeness dimension (β=.633, p<.05), indicating that teachers who perceive their initial training as more useful for current practice, have higher levels of closeness with children they work with. The proposed model is not significant when it comes to the antagonism in the teacher child relations, indicating that variables such as assessment of the initial education, continuous professional development, experience in the work with children with disabilities, self-assessed motivation and competence for inclusive practice, do not explain the negative exchange, ambivalent and rejecting relation with the child, and other characteristics of antagonism in teacher-child relations. In Croatian teachers subsample regression model for closeness, as well for antagonism, were not significant, which indicates that relationship quality in this subsample is not described by this set of variables. These results open the question of further investigation of predictors that could potentially contribute to the teacher-child with disability relationship quality, in order to improve the quality of preschool inclusive practice.