At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the concept of inclusive education was named by the states and governments of most of the world's most developed countries as one of the priority areas for improving the world's education system and policies aimed at promoting effective anti-discrimination measures and improving the quality of education for all children in accordance with a wide range of their educational needs in general education schools.
Research method
I examined parents' attitudes towards inclusive education and the integration of children with disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders, into the educational environment of the regular school.
The framework of this article gives us an opportunity to focus on the analysis of the results and formulation of generalized conclusions on the entire empirical sample.
Parents of children with special needs, including children with mental disabilities, spoke more frankly about the fears of rejection, ridicule, and aggression from healthy children, which will hinder communication, causing discomfort in communication and acceptance into the educational team.
In addition, parents of children with disabilities noted the physical difficulties and decrease in the level of involvement in the public life of the class. The latter is more likely to apply to children with hearing, vision and mobility impairments, although we believe that children with autism spectrum disorders are able, albeit minimally, to participate in extracurricular activities.
In my view, the difficulties identified by parents of children with disabilities are due in large part to the sometimes unrecognized fears and problems of the parents themselves, which they project on their children and their opportunities for inclusion. I agree that due to the imperfection of the system of inclusive education in our country such fears are quite justified.
I believe it is necessary to give the results of the parents' survey regarding the difficulties that may arise in the learning process:
- a fairly large group of parents of healthy children do not see any particular difficulties;
- another group of parents noted that healthy children will be distracted;
- they will lack the attention of the teacher;
- an individual approach to the student will not be possible;
- healthy children will experience discomfort, negative mood and psychological barriers.
Parents of children with special needs expressed more concerns about the performance of special children, the possibility of learning, individual approach, the complexity of perception of the program, etc. That is, parents of children with disabilities, including mental disorders, which include children with ASD, are more afraid of joint learning because of the requirements of modern education and lack of necessary equipment. We can assume that these fears are also caused by ignorance of the very process of inclusion and the principles of its organization.
Careful attitude towards inclusive education among parents of children with disabilities, including those with autism spectrum disorders, confirms the results of the study.
Categories of parents of special children based on the degree of consent/disagree with the introduction of inclusion for children with developmental disabilities were identified. This:
1) parents who categorically reject inclusion because they understand that neither the school nor teachers nor children are ready to accept special children in the general classroom;
2) parents who accept inclusion but do not believe in its implementation in the Republic of Komi in the coming years;
3) parents who accept the idea of inclusion and are ready to act to implement it in the Republic of Komi
Parents who do not accept inclusion are most often isolated from society and prefer individual learning for their child. Parents who accept inclusion, despite understanding their difficulties, decide to do what is necessary to integrate their special child into an educational setting.
Although the majority of parents of healthy children (53%) accept inclusive education, they understand the changes that will take place in their child's life, education and society at large. Nevertheless, 34% of them spoke out against co-education of their healthy children and children with disabilities, considering inclusion unacceptable or premature.
Parents who are advocates for inclusive education noted the positive impact of inclusion as an opportunity to successfully socialize special children and integrate them into the social environment. Respondents from this group consciously noted that despite the humanity of inclusion in education, modern society is not yet ready to accept children with disabilities in general.
Currently, there are stereotypical attitudes and perceptions that discriminate against special children.