ATTITUDES OF THE COMMUNITY TOWARDS INCLUSIVE VALUES OF EDUCATION (ACTIVE): COMPARATIVE RESEARCH IN VIETNAM, UKRAINE AND COSTA RICA

In the last decades all over the world, the Special Education is been transforming in order to promote the equal opportunities for all students. Many countries are looking to achieve the inclusive education as a regular practice.

The developing countries are having different problems with this challenge, because it demands additional expenses in order to prepare the environment for teachers and students. Challenges that Ukraine, Costa Rica and Vietnam share in this subject are historical and culturally developed stigmas about disabled people and their involvement in civic society.

This awaked our interest in finding out the psychological category that promotes the development of inclusive education. The attitude that the community has towards the inclusive education is the variable that may endorse it and make it sustainable. Therefore we are looking to identify it and study its effect in the success of equal participation. Refering to a set of emotions, beliefs and behaviors toward a particular object, person, thing, or event, attitudes are often the result of experience or upbright, and they can have powerful influence over behavior [1]. Attitude is one of the main obstacles that prevent children to access qualitative education. The attitude that the community has towards the inclusive education is the variable that may endorse it and make it sustainable.

Therefore we are looking to identify it and study its effect in the success of equal participation. Vision of the  project is to assess attitudes of the target groups (parents og healthy children, patents of disabled chsildren, teachers, scholl administartion, community) towards inclusive education, and compare the results obtained in the three countries involved.

The objectives if the projects:

-      Define the attitudes that the members of the school community have towards inclusive education by designing a measurable tool appropriate the cultural background of the participant countries;

-     Analyze comparatively the attitudes that the members of the community towards inclusive education in the participant country;

-     Define the recommendation that can sustain positive attitudes of the community community towards inclusive education in the participant country.

The peculiarities of the implementation of the project are in general approach, concrete methods, target population. General approach is represented by mixed qualitative and quantitative research in which the participants are interested in analyzing the different cultural settings.

Concrete methods are represented by interview, observation guideline and questionnaire which will be designed, validated by a group of experts and then standardized in order to be applied in the field of action.

Target population is represented by 100 people in each target group, 500 persons in total per country.

Measurable goals and criteria: The structural interview will gather the most profound information about inner determinants of attitude.

It is important to point out that the validation and standardization of the research tools will allow its application in different cultural settings connecting with similar inclusive values.

Literature

1. Colman, A.M. A Dictionary of Psychology. – New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. – 845 p.