Irena Lesar

Teachers’ perceptions of the inclusion of marginalised groups

This paper is based on the concept of inclusion as a process of recognising and minimising the barriers to learning and participation of all children, with teachers as the key players in implementing inclusion in practice. There are two key questions: (1) How do teachers rank different groups of marginalised children? (2) How do teachers see their own role, the role of the marginalised and other children, and their parents in the inclusion process? The groups included in the research were children with special needs, migrants from former Yugoslavia, Roma/Gypsies and children from poor families. In the latter group, it also looked at their counterparts, the children of wealthy parents. Research carried out on a representative sample of primary school teachers in Slovenia showed that children with special needs are among all surveyed groups of children those seen as the most helpless. For these children, teachers are also most likely to lower learning and discipline standards, while at the same time feeling the least qualified to teach them and seeing them also as having the lowest abilities. In the teachers’ opinion, parents of other children have the greatest reservations when their child associates with a Roma/Gypsy child, and teachers also put the least trust in Roma/Gypsy parents.

Should assessment reflect only pupils’ knowledge?

In order to realise increasingly complex objectives of compulsory education, it is necessary to have in place appropriate teaching concepts as well as assessment and testing guidelines. The question, however, is what should be assessed: levels of acquired knowledge, skills or attitudes? Should assessment be only a measure of the educational process outcomes, or should it also measure the process of knowledge acquisition itself? How should assessment be carried out in order to respect the principle of fairness and justice? In this paper, we will present results of a research project in which we were interested to find out what teachers would assess if it were up to them to decide. Our survey was conducted on a representative sample of primary school teachers in Slovenia. In spite of clear regulations prescribing that teachers should only assess pupils’ progress in relation to the defined objectives and knowledge standards, teachers underlined the necessity to also consider other aspects of children’s development.

Self-esteem of deaf and hard of hearing students in regular and special schools

The study focuses on the self-esteem of deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) students from Slovenia. A total of 80 D/HH students from regular and special primary schools (grades 6–9) and from regular and special secondary schools (grades 1–4) completed the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Lamovec 1994). For the entire group of D/HH students, the results of all self-esteem dimensions, including social, emotional and physical self and confidence, do not differ regarding their gender and level of hearing loss. Furthermore, almost no differences in self-esteem were found in respect to the students’ ages. Relative to the norms of hearing students, D/HH students achieved average results in each self-esteem dimension. D/HH students from regular schools had higher self-esteem in emotional and physical self and confidence than those from special schools. The final grade in Slovene language was an important predictor of D/HH students’ self-esteem in the dimension of confidence.

Beliefs of university staff teaching in pedagogical study programmes on concept(s) of inclusiveness – the case of Slovenia

ABSTRACT University teaching staff in Slovenia are autonomous in deciding on the contents of courses and thereby determine future educators’ conceptualisation of inclusiveness. This study explores perceptions of Slovenian university staff teaching in pedagogical study programmes of the main factors affecting the implementation of inclusiveness; of the quality of the study programmes in terms of providing relevant knowledge and skills for pedagogical work with marginalised students; and of the relevant contents of study programmes educating future educators. Analyses show that more than half of the participants prefer inclusiveness to integration. Preference for inclusiveness depends on the study programme they contribute to for the most part and on the amount of time they devote in their subjects to the topic of the marginalised. Almost half of the participants believe partial revision of study programmes is required. Data suggest that university teaching staff are ambivalent about the relevance of the foundational pedagogical contents and specific contents for implementing inclusiveness or integration. The implications of this ambivalence and the necessary changes in the study programmes are presented.

Mapping inclusive education within the discipline of Pedagogy. Comparative analysis of new study programmes in Slovenia

ABSTRACT In the research in the field of inclusiveness it is often neglected how inclusiveness is constructed differently within the so-called Anglo-American and continental educational contexts. In Slovenia, the field of educational studies has historically developed within the continental, particularly German tradition, as a discipline called Pedagogy at the Faculty of Arts. Since Pedagogy is fundamentally theorising the processes of becoming a free human being and does not take a particular interest in the issues of vulnerable social groups, a complementary area of tertiary study emerged in todays Faculty of Education (e.g. Special needs Pedagogy). However, recently we can identify a trend of emerging new study programmes, the so-called inclusive education. Because of this separation between scientific fields, this paper is dealing with a question of which of the disciplines is offering a more convincing answers to the question of how to conceptualise and implement the inclusiveness. Using qualitative analyses of the concept of inclusiveness and content analyses of Slovenian study programmes and courses related to inclusive education, we attempt to show that discipline of Pedagogy provides a conceptualising of inclusiveness that is more complex through successfully interweaving the humanistic and social paradigm.

Teachers on perceived traits and academic achievements of regular pupils and pupils with special needs in mainstream primary schools

When looking for answers to the question of academic (non)achievement of regular pupils and pupils with special needs, it is necessary to take into account the extraordinary complexity of factors, ranging from psychological across instructional to home environment variables. The academic achievement is not only a reflection of the pupil’s knowledge, but is also influenced by the pupil’s behaviour, the teacher’s expectations and finally the relationship established between the teacher and the pupil. This paper contributes answers to the question which of the traits, perceived by teachers, explain the academic achievements of regular pupils and pupils with special needs. Our analysis shows that perceived traits that explain the academic achievement of regular pupils refer to academic as well as social behaviour, disruptive behaviour and self-regulatory behaviour; therefore, they cover all areas of perceived traits we studied. In pupils with special needs as a whole and in particular groups of pupils with special needs, the factor which presents disruptive social behaviour proved as insignificant, which consequently means that the academic achievement of pupils with special needs depends more on academic and self-regulatory behaviour, task activity and social inclusion.