Practice and innovation inclusive education in preschool institutions

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.