Inclusive education in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus: Comparing parental satisfaction

Abstract

Thirty years have passed since the Salamanca Statement that outlined the fundamental policy shifts required to promote inclusive education. In post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia the implementation of inclusive education policies began relatively recently. The article presents the results of a comparative cross-national survey conducted in 2021 in five post-soviet countries that represent two geographic regions of the post-socialist space: the South Caucasus (Armenia and Georgia) and Eastern Europe (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine). Parental satisfaction with inclusive education of their children with SEND is studied from an international perspective through comparative sources on policy, legislation, governance, standards, as well as public opinion and parental participation in the five states. According to the results, the countries differ by the degree of parental satisfaction with inclusive education, with the highest level of critical appraisal of implementation of inclusion and teachers’ competences in Russia and Belarus. Our main findings indicate that, in these regions, the main support for inclusive education comes precisely from the parents of children with SEND; however, they are also more critical towards the real state of inclusion, and are especially dissatisfied with the qualifications of teachers.