TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS FOR INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Abstract

The literature review shows a growing interest in investigating teacher education in an inclusive perspective, given the number of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools as well as the studies that focus on the value of this approach. The purpose of this article is to analyze the training needs from the perspective of an inclusive education of the students with special educational needs, in the context of the Romanian school staff. In the current study, teachers provided their experience and opinions for the development of in-service training programs in the field of inclusion. They presented the number of children with special educational needs in their classes, the training they received, the implementation capacity, and the school support, as well as the teachers’ expectations and the barriers they encountered. 1132 teachers from pre-university education from 40 counties participated. The methodology is quantitative and qualitative and the data was collected through online questionnaires. Data was analysed using an inductive system of categories and codes. The results addressed the following themes: the teachers’ level of competencies they acquired from previous training, the importance they give to continuous training, their motivation for professional development, the contents they considered necessary from an inclusive perspective, and the framework for exploring the development of collaborative practice in training. The conclusions section addressed the need for schools to design and implement training policies for their communities.