Integrated education for children with disabilities. Integration means the inclusion of children with disabilities and children with disabilities in society as full members of it, actively

Under integration in the pedagogical process, researchers understand one of the aspects of the development process associated with the unification of previously disparate parts into a whole. This process can take place both within the framework of an already established system, and within the framework of a new system. The essence of the integration process is qualitative transformations within each element included in the system.

The problems of integration in pedagogy are considered in different aspects in the works of many researchers. In the works of V. V. Kraevsky, A. V. Petrovsky, N. F. Talyzina, the issues of integration of pedagogy with other sciences are considered. G. D. Glazer and V. S. Lednev reveal ways of integration in the content of education. In the works of L. I. Novikova and V. A. Karakovsky, the problems integration of educational influences on a child. Integration in learning organizations considered in the works of S. M. Gapeenkov and G. F. Fedorets. The named and other scientists determined the methodological foundations of integration in pedagogy: the philosophical concept of the leading role of activity in the development of the child; position on a systematic and holistic approach to pedagogical phenomena; psychological theories about the relationship between the processes of education and development. Based on the identified methodological provisions, scientists distinguish a number of concepts: the process of integration, the principle of integration, integrative processes, integrative approach.

The principle of integration involves the interconnection of all components of the learning process, all elements of the system, the connection between systems. He is the leader in the development of goal setting, determining the content of training, its forms and methods.

An integrative approach means the implementation of the principle of integration in any component of the pedagogical process, ensures the integrity and consistency of the pedagogical process.

Integrative processes are processes of qualitative transformation of individual elements of a system or the entire system. Many studies in domestic didactics and in the theory of education are based on the above provisions in the development of specific ways to improve the educational process.

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Correctional Pedagogy

In special (correctional) pedagogy, the approach to integration is deeply peculiar. In the work of N. M. Nazarova, this concept is defined as follows: “In the most general form, in relation to special pedagogy, the term“ integration ”means the process, result and condition in which disabled people and other members of society with limited health, intelligence, sensory sphere and others, are not socially isolated or isolated, participating in all types and forms of social life together and on an equal footing with others. In the education system, at all its levels, integration means a real, and not declared, possibility of a minimally restrictive alternative for children, adolescents, youth with developmental problems - education either in a special educational institution, or, with equal opportunities, in a general educational institution, for example , in institutions of general secondary education ". A similar definition is given in the work of M. I. Nikitina: “Under the process of integrating persons with developmental disabilities in correctional pedagogy is understood the process of including these persons in all spheres of society as equal members of it, mastering the achievements of science, culture, economics, education” . In the works of N. N. Malofeev and N. D. Shmatko, the integration process is considered as follows: the integration of children with special educational needs into ordinary educational institutions. Today it is already a global process, in which all highly developed countries are involved. Such an approach, as the researchers note, to the education of children with special needs is brought to life by many reasons of a different nature. Their totality can be designated as the social order of society and the state that have reached a certain level of economic, cultural and legal development. Integration is defined as a natural stage in the development of the system of special education, associated in any country of the world, including Russia, with a rethinking by society and the state of its attitude towards people with disabilities, with the recognition of their rights to provide equal opportunities with others in various areas of life, including education . In works on the integration of children with developmental disabilities, such a concept as socio-cultural integration is introduced. The content of this concept was developed in the studies of D. L. Shamsutdinova. “Socio-cultural integration can be represented as a system of interrelated activities and actions aimed at minimizing or resolving problems caused by certain costs in the field of rehabilitation, socialization, inculturation, etc. etc." N. M. Nazarova notes that the term integration has multiple meanings and variable interpretations. An integral part of the integration of children with developmental disabilities into society is their integration into general educational institutions, where they get the opportunity to study together with normally developing peers. In domestic special pedagogy, a number of terms are used that define the processes of joint education of children with developmental disabilities and normally developing children. The most commonly used term is integrated learning. M. I. Nikitina, analyzing integrated learning, gives its definition, referring to the draft law of the Russian Federation “On Special Education”: “Integrated learning is understood as “joint learning of persons with physical and (or) mental disabilities, and persons who do not have such shortcomings, using special means, methods and with the participation of specialist teachers ". A similar definition of integrated education is given by S. S. Stepanov: "Integrated education for abnormal children is the education and upbringing of children with various defects in psychophysical development in institutions of the general education system, along with normal developing children ". The term integrated learning is used in the works of leading scientists in the field of special education: L. S. Volkova, N. N. Malofeeva, N. M. Nazarova, M. I. Nikitina, L. P. Ufimtseva, N. D Shmatko and others. Along with this term, the term integrated training and education, integrated education is used. However, in their content, the authors carry a similar meaning. In addition to works analyzing approaches to integration and integrated learning written in the framework of special education, there are monographic studies on this issue written in the framework of general pedagogy and the sociology of education. D. V. Shamsutdinova uses the concept of socio-cultural integration, the content of which echoes the content of the concept of integration used in special pedagogy.

Notes

36. Integrated and inclusive education.

Comparing these different models of organizing school education, we can conclude that with an integration approach, a child with special educational needs adapts to the education system, which remains unchanged, and with an inclusive approach, the education system goes through a cycle of transformations and acquires the ability to adapt to special educational needs. the needs of students.

Integrated learning- this is training (education) in a joint educational environment for children with disabilities (children with mental retardation, with severe forms of speech impairment, children with disabilities, etc.) and children who do not have such disabilities, by providing children with disabilities health special conditions for education / upbringing and social adaptation that do not reduce the overall level of education for children who do not have such restrictions in the classroom.

One of the main aspects of integration in education is properly organized learning conditions for a particular child. In terms of integration, the child must be ready to master a program designed for healthy peers, in this case, we can talk about the readiness for this process of both the child himself and his environment, that is, about the external and internal conditions of integration.

The external conditions that ensure the effective integration of children with special educational needs include:

early detection of violations (in the first year of life) and corrective work from the first months of life;

the desire and willingness of parents to help the child in the learning process, the desire of parents to educate the child together with healthy children;

availability in the institution of opportunities to provide an integrated child with qualified assistance;

creation of conditions for the implementation of variable models of integrated learning.

Internal conditions or indicators that contribute to effective integration include:

the level of mental and speech development corresponding to the age norm or close to it;

the possibility of mastering the general educational standard in the terms provided for normally developing children;

Inclusive education- this is such an organization of the learning process in which ALL children, regardless of their physical, mental, intellectual, cultural, ethnic, linguistic and other characteristics, are included in the general education system and study at the place of residence together with their peers without disabilities in the same general education schools - in such general schools that take into account their special educational needs and provide their students with the necessary special support.

Inclusive education of children with developmental disabilities together with their peers is the education of different children in the same class, and not in a specially allocated group (class) at a general education school.

Inclusion- deep immersion of the child in an adapted educational environment and the provision of support services to him.

Inclusive (inclusive) education gives everyone the opportunity to fully participate in the life of the team of the kindergarten, school, institute. Thanks to this, the school turns into an educational space that stimulates and supports not only students, but also their own employees. A community that supports and appreciates the achievements of each member.

This education is based on eight principles:

The value of a person does not depend on his abilities and achievements.

Every person is capable of feeling and thinking.

Everyone has the right to communicate and to be heard.

All people need each other.

Genuine education can only take place in the context of real relationships.

All people need the support and friendship of their peers.

For all learners, progress may be more about what they can do than what they cannot do.

Diversity activates all aspects of human life.

Inclusive schools are open to everyone - for every child and teenager. Inclusive schools accommodate all children, regardless of their psychological, mental, social, emotional, linguistic or any other characteristics. They can train children with disabilities and special talents; children belonging to a linguistic, ethnic or cultural minority; children from disadvantaged regions and disadvantaged social groups.

Education of children in such institutions should be organized in such a way as to meet the special needs of each child. Therefore, the main difference between integrated education and inclusive education is that integrated education implies ensuring the availability of a regular educational program inside the school walls for students with disabilities, primarily with disorders of the musculoskeletal system, and inclusive education and education - creating and maintaining conditions for joint education in the classroom of ordinary children and children with disabilities in various educational programs that correspond to their abilities.

Educational integration of children with disabilities

Under the conditions of socio-economic transformations in Russia, the processes of social stratification are deepening, indicators of poverty and polarization of population groups in the social structure of society are growing in terms of income, as well as orientations towards various life support strategies, including the choice of higher education as a necessary condition for development and social mobility of citizens. At the same time, the alienation of a number of social groups from the opportunities to receive higher education is increasing due to unfavorable starting conditions, often determined not by learning abilities and individual efforts to acquire knowledge, but by multiple factors of social deprivation. Disabled people, in particular, pupils of boarding schools, occupy a special place among such social groups. Analysis of the accessibility of education for representatives of this group is an important task in the institutional regulation of social policy. In this chapter, we outline the prospects for studying the factors of access to education, consider the arguments in favor of integrated education, reveal the basic concepts and principles of educational integration, and also present some data from sociological surveys on the problem of teaching children with disabilities in a general education school.

The problem of access to education for disabled children
in the context of research on social inequality

The analysis of disability in the context of education allows the problematization of social inequality in a new way, despite the fact that education has been seen as a means of achieving equality since the Enlightenment. On the one hand, the understanding of education as a public good is characteristic of the concept of a welfare state, which should provide its citizens with equal opportunities for access to social values. Arming people with knowledge, education helps them to take their rightful place in society, thereby helping to mitigate social inequality. On the other hand, sociological studies carried out in the West and in Russia since the 1960s have shown that education is more inclined to reflect and confirm existing inequalities than to contribute to its elimination. D.L. Konstantinovsky believes that the myth of equality of opportunity is one of the most attractive for a socialist state, representing an important part of the ideology of the Soviet period until a certain point, until sociologists began to refute it. In the 60s, a study was conducted by V.N. Shubkin, which demonstrated that Soviet society is by no means free from inequality in the education system, the transmission of statuses, and other phenomena of this kind that are also characteristic of other societies. Domestic researchers studied social stratification, mechanisms of social mobility associated with the education system.

Projects carried out in the 1960s and 70s in a number of countries around the world demonstrated that social and family circumstances have the greatest influence on the results of schooling; this subsequently determines the level of income. The effectiveness of the educational process has been shown to be affected by the social background of students, which determines "the inequality in which children are placed by their home, their neighborhood, their environment" . These and similar studies have sparked a debate about the need for integrated education for children from different racial groups and social strata. Some modern Russian sociologists are working in the same direction, emphasizing the continuity and transmission through the educational system of those social and class differences that exist outside of education. At the same time, the probability of obtaining a higher education is an indicator of social inequality.

British studies in the 1980s confirmed findings about social inequalities outside the school, and also questioned why schools themselves tend to perpetuate and reproduce inequalities. And yet, improving the quality of teaching, creating a healthy social climate in the school and the practical orientation of schooling, as the researchers believed, could help children from poor families, as well as improve their performance for graduates of boarding schools.

The work of P. Bourdieu had a great influence on understanding the reproduction of inequality in education. According to Bourdieu, education is an instrument of symbolic violence, taking the form of classificatory conflicts, in which warring factions try to impose, as the only legitimate, their view of the world, their classificatory schemes, their idea of "who (and for what reasons) should be considered who" . In this and his later works, Bourdieu suggests looking for an answer to the classic question of sociology about the reproduction of social inequality in the education system and in other cultural institutions. Schools and universities relay inherently unequal socioeconomic conditions into varying degrees of endowment; therefore, universities that are nominally open to everyone actually get only those who have certain habits, who have assimilated the necessary social and cultural dispositions.

Since about the mid-1960s, it has become clear to sociologists that disabled children, especially graduates of boarding schools, in the education system join the least qualified socio-professional groups, occupying low-status positions that do not require quality training or abilities, bring low income and have the lowest prestige. The acquisition of quality secondary and higher education by children with disabilities is hampered by multiple structural constraints that are characteristic of societies with a complex stratification structure. In sociological analysis, inequality of access to social benefits is defined by the concept of deprivation associated with poverty and other forms of social disadvantage. In the 1970s in Great Britain, studies led by M. Brown and N. Madge demonstrated the difficulty of identifying and even defining deprivation, which appears in various forms. The concept of “multiple deprivation” was introduced, meaning the intersection and overlap of factors of unequal access to various kinds of socially approved values.

The phenomenon of "transferable deprivation" is close in meaning to the concept of the cycle of deprivation, introduced into circulation in the study of the so-called "culture of poverty" by US sociologists. Scientists of this direction believed that the shortcomings of education lead to the formation of a generation, which in turn reproduces the same shortcomings that were characteristic of their parents. The concept of a culture of poverty was introduced by O. Lewis to refer to the lifestyle of slum dwellers: in such an environment, children are socialized into the appropriate culture of their parents and form appropriate claims and lifestyles; in this vein, for example, the dependent attitudes of the poor are discussed. In the 1990s, the problem of poverty, as the most relevant aspect of social inequality, became the subject of research by a number of Russian sociologists.

It is obvious that the quality of human resources in society depends not only on the quality of academic training, but also, among other things, on the social experience accumulated by the individual, social competence, the ability to social adaptation and development of the individual. This quality in the UNESCO program documents is called the functional literacy of the population. The concept of functional illiteracy can be applied to the analysis of the situation of children with disabilities, which manifests itself "in the inability to use changing situations and manage life circumstances" . From our point of view, the growth of functional illiteracy can be stopped and reduced if the task of expanding the access of socially vulnerable groups of the population to social benefits and prestigious channels of socialization is carried out, thereby regulating the dynamics of the development of the socio-professional structure of society and preventing the marginalization of large social groups. In order to improve the functional literacy of children with disabilities, civic education and personal growth programs should be developed using modern active teaching and training methods. In turn, this will improve the social competence of children with disabilities, form the motivation to receive higher education. Such initiatives can only be successfully developed if the appropriate regulatory and institutional conditions are in place. The normative conditions include the development of rights and guarantees, and the institutional conditions include the formation of such an educational environment in which the principles of tolerance, integration and partnership would be developed.

Theory and practice of inclusive education
disabled children abroad

In a number of countries around the world, starting around the 1970s, a package of regulations has been developed and implemented to expand the educational opportunities for people with disabilities. The implementation of such laws and other documents is expressed in a set of positive discrimination measures. This is a system of privileges in society for obtaining equal opportunities for a discriminated group. In order for the system of positive discrimination to function, so-called affirmative actions are applied - measures to promote minority representatives by reducing the privileges of the majority group. Politicians, sociologists, activists of public organizations today are discussing the issue of expanding the access of socially vulnerable groups to high-quality secondary and higher education. In this regard, they talk about the formation of a system of political and economic influence on the student body of higher education, including measures to prepare students from socially vulnerable strata for admission to a university and create the most favorable environment in the process of their education (in particular, is about people with disabilities, representatives of migrant families, racial minorities, the poor, the rural population).

In the recent history of the educational policy of the United States and Europe, several approaches have developed: school desegregation, widening participation, integration, mainstreaming, inclusion (from the English. inclusion- inclusion). Mainstreaming refers to such a strategy when students with disabilities communicate with their peers on holidays, in various leisure programs, and even if they are included in mass school classes, then primarily in order to increase their opportunities for social contacts, but not to achieve educational goals. goals. Integration means bringing the needs of children with mental and physical disabilities into line with an education system that remains generally unchanged: mainstream schools are not adapted for children with disabilities (and students with disabilities, attending a public school, do not necessarily study in the same classes as everyone else). other children). Inclusion is the most modern term, which is interpreted as follows: it is the reform of schools and the redevelopment of classrooms in such a way that they meet the needs and requirements of all children without exception.

The approaches mentioned are based on several theoretical perspectives: the theory of social justice, human rights, the theory of social systems in relation to human development, social constructivism, information society, structuralism, social criticism. If we talk about systems theory in terms of the education of disabled people, then we should mention the works of W. Bronfenbrenner, who showed that human development is a process in which a maturing, growing individual acquires an increasingly broad, differentiated and adequate view of the environment. This is due to the fact that over time, children are included with great interest in an increasing number of activities and contacts, changing their social environment. Therefore, it would be wrong to control the behavior of students, rather, it is necessary to develop self-management skills in them.

Another concept in the same vein is presented by Brim, who argues that each person actually has their own curriculum, their own rules, and we would never be able to participate in any group activity if we did not learn the rules of the group. Likewise, students must - for better or worse - learn how to survive in school, and teachers must teach them the social and organizational structure of the school. However, teachers must recognize that in schools students are being asked to behave in ways they would not do outside of school - at home or on the street, in the community. No matter how hard the educators and teachers try to “domesticate” the space of the boarding school, it still remains “official”, not replacing a home and family, but also not providing students with wide opportunities for social adaptation to an independent life after school. Thus, the very nature of the school is a problem for students with disabilities. In special education settings, we are faced with the dilemma of helping students adjust to school, survive in school, while at the same time helping them develop the self-management and decision-making skills they will need in adult life in society.

Compulsory schooling was introduced in the United States from 1875 to 1914, in connection with which classes were formed for children who were considered mentally underdeveloped, as well as for those who were considered "incorrigible for their behavior", deaf or physically disabled. During this same period, the National Education Association created the Department of Special Education. IQ tests evolved, immigrants flooded in, an organized labor force grew, and psychological theories developed. All these factors influenced the school system, which developed the principles for measuring and defining individual differences and potential. In the 60s and 70s, voices of criticism are heard against the school, which is to blame for the failures of the students. Jane Mercer's research has emphasized that each social system gives new definitions to the individual, so disability is a product of social contracting.

In 1962, Reinold proposed, and then I. Deno improved the concept service cascade. This cascade, or continuum, provides a model for designing services to meet the needs of individual students and ranges from hospital and home schooling to special schools, special classes, and finally regular mainstream school classrooms. The Education for All Children with Disabilities Act 1977 lists appropriate additional services needed to assist children with disabilities receive special education: transportation, speech therapy, audiology, psychological services, physical therapy, recreation, occupational therapy, early identification, medical services, school doctor or nurse, school social worker, psychologist, social work services for children and families, parent counseling and training. In the 1990s, the United States passed the Education for All Children with Disabilities Act, with its principle of individualized learning, as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Teachers working in schools on the principles of inclusion assume the following responsibility: to teach all students who are assigned to them; make flexible decisions in teaching and monitor them; provide education in accordance with the typical curriculum, adapting the details when the progress achieved by children differs from what is expected; be able to teach to a diverse audience; seek, use and coordinate support for students requiring more intensive services than those provided by their peers. Researchers talk about the "experience of transformation" experienced by educators who have become inclusive teachers. These are gradual transformations that involve teachers who want to: 1) interact with students who are different from their peers; 2) master the skills necessary for the education of all students; 3) change their attitudes towards students who are different from their peers.

Those teachers who already have experience working on the principles of inclusive education have developed the following ways of inclusion: 1) accept students with disabilities “like any other children in the class”; 2) include them in the same activities, although set different tasks; 3) involve students in cooperative learning and group problem solving; 4) use active and participatory strategies - manipulations, games, projects, laboratories, field research. Inclusive learning communities are changing the role of the teacher in many ways. Lipsky and Gartner believe that teachers help to activate the potential of students by collaborating with other teachers in an interdisciplinary environment without artificially distinguishing between special and mass educators. Teachers are involved in a variety of interactions with students, so that they get to know each individually. In addition, teachers are involved in extensive social contacts outside the school, including with learning resources and parents.

However, in 1999-2001, Saratov State Technical University (SSTU), for example, received, using benefits, only from 0.8 to 2% of applicants from the entire enrollment. This indicates, among other things, the low level of training of socially vulnerable groups and the weakness of their motivation to receive higher education. It should be noted that the dynamics of the recruitment of applicants from socially vulnerable groups, including those entering on preferential terms, are not actually taken into account in universities. Such statistics in Russia are not taken into account in the rankings of universities, in contrast to the indicators of the competition and the amount of extrabudgetary funds, while in the UK, for example, on the number of students representing the social groups of the poor, migrants, disabled people, as well as on the availability of programs to prepare these applicants for admission to the university depends on the amount of target budget financing.

Problems and prospects of educational integration
disabled children in Russia

In many post-socialist countries, educational policy is trying to abandon the system of special schools. The number of children in specialized boarding schools in Eastern Europe is declining, while the number of special education students in mainstream schools is growing. Differences in the economic and political development of the states of this region affect the pace and content of the integration process. For example, in Bulgaria the implementation of the law on integrated education (1995) was temporarily suspended due to the difficult economic situation, while in Lithuania a stable process of integration has been going on since 1991. In a number of countries, there is growing concern about the haste of integration, as children are not receiving adequate attention and training. In turn, in some countries, the decrease in the number of children in special schools indicates the collapse and extremely difficult situation of the special education system (Moldova, Kyrgyzstan). It should be noted that in a number of countries the reduction in the number of children in special schools occurs against the background of a decrease in the number of the child population as a whole. As for Russia, the number of children officially receiving disability benefits has increased dramatically: from 155,000 in 1990 to 454,000 in 1995 (1.3% of the total number of children). It is possible that some children with mental or physical disabilities are not included in the statistics and do not have access to education at all. In our opinion, the obstacles to integration here are the recession in the economy and the lack of financial resources; the inertia of state institutions, the interest of the administration of these institutions in maintaining the current situation, the medicalist approach to the classification of special needs inherited from former times, general and professional intolerance.

The transition to inclusive education in the domestic context, in principle, was already predetermined by the fact that Russia ratified the UN Conventions in the field of children's rights, the rights of people with disabilities: Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959); Declaration on the Rights of the Mentally Handicapped (1971); Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (1975); Convention on the Rights of the Child (1975). But in order for Russia to become a civilized country with a civilized education, it is necessary not only to adopt a law on special education, or on the education of persons with disabilities, but also to have a favorable public opinion on this issue, as well as create institutional conditions for the implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities. The education system in modern Russia is undergoing profound changes, various educational institutions are being transformed as a result of government reforms and under the influence of a market economy. At the same time, the values of social inclusion and integration are on the agenda, although public opinion on this issue is far from homogeneous.

Today, there are various forms of assistance in obtaining higher education for various socially vulnerable groups of the population: legislative regulation of the conditions for obtaining higher education, financial support, information support, social rehabilitation, positive discrimination. All these forms are at different stages of their development and have varying degrees of effectiveness. The bill of the Russian Federation "On the education of persons with disabilities (special education)", which has been awaiting adoption by the President of the Russian Federation since 1996, establishes the possibility of teaching disabled children in a public school, and in the Report of the State Council of the Russian Federation "The educational policy of Russia at the present stage "(2001) already speaks of the priority of integrated (inclusive) education of disabled children: "Children with health problems (disabled) should be provided by the state with medical and psychological support and special conditions for education in exceptional cases - in special boarding schools. Special education, which includes students with special needs, disabilities, is experiencing severe shocks due to funding cuts and structural changes. The social role of institutions such as boarding schools for children with developmental disabilities is being reassessed.

Special education, on the one hand, creates special conditions for meeting the needs of students in medical and pedagogical services, and on the other hand, it hinders the social integration of disabled people, limiting their life chances. The humanistic alternative is integrated or inclusive (joint) education, which can significantly reduce the processes of marginalization of children with disabilities. Inclusive education in the process of its implementation may face not only the difficulties of organizing a so-called barrier-free environment (the presence of ramps, a one-story school design, the introduction of sign language interpreters into the staff, the refurbishment of common areas), but also social difficulties, which consist in widespread stereotypes and prejudices, including the readiness or refusal of teachers, schoolchildren and their parents to accept integration.

In our research (D.V. Zaitsev, P.V. Romanov - a survey of teachers, N=276, a survey of parents, N=260, 2001-2002; I.I. Loshakova - a survey of high school students, N=250, 2000-2001 ) we found out the attitude of teachers, secondary school students and their parents to the possibility of joint education with disabled children who have difficulties with movement, hearing, speech or vision impairments, mental retardation. It must be said that about 1/3 of the high school students we interviewed (N=250) never noticed the presence of disabled children in our society, about 40% saw them on the street, about 20% knew each other, but did not communicate, and about 10% had close contacts.

The analysis showed that the closest contacts, characterizing the relationship between good friends, comrades and relatives, are carried out between the students surveyed and children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system (12.4%) and with disabled children experiencing mental development disorders (12 ,9%). More rare among our respondents were contacts with those children who have speech, hearing or vision impairments (9.1%). And among those whom schoolchildren have only seen on the street, there are more disabled children with outward signs of disability (40.5%). Thus, about 70% of the respondents showed varying degrees of awareness of the problems of disability in children. The fact that only about 1/3 of the surveyed high school students had the opportunity to meet a disabled child, in our opinion, suggests that the opportunities for such acquaintance are small, and partly they are set by the institutional framework, in particular, the organization of the education system.

Rice. 1. How would you react to the fact that children with disabilities will study with you?
(Senior students, N=250)

As can be seen (Fig. 1), the greatest tolerance for being in the same class is shown by our respondents in relation to children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system, and they are less tolerant of those who have hearing and vision impairments. The lowest level of tolerance was revealed in relation to children with intellectual disabilities - almost half of the lyceum students expressed the wish that they study in a separate school. It is quite obvious that in this case, a deeply rooted stereotype is revealed, the stigma of mental retardation, constructing serious barriers to the integration of both children and adults into society.

Despite the manifestation of intolerance towards certain forms of disability, the vast majority of respondents are convinced that it is necessary to take special actions in order for people with disabilities to become equal in rights (85%). As in the answers to the previous questions, such views are more typical of those who have personal experience of dealing with people with disabilities. More than half of these respondents believe that it is necessary to help people perceive people with disabilities without prejudice, and almost 40% of those surveyed believe that people with disabilities should be helped to live and work in conditions that would not restrict their movement - sound signals at traffic lights, entrances to shops for wheelchairs, accessible public spaces and transport.

It should be noted that about 70% of the interviewed parents (N=260) consider the educational integration of children with lesions of the musculoskeletal system to be possible, while less than 40% of respondents among teachers (N=276) are inclined to this opinion. Parents are also more tolerant of the idea of educational integration of children with other developmental disabilities: the number of those who have a positive attitude towards such an opportunity for children with speech, hearing and vision impairments is 16% higher than the number of teachers who agreed with this option (36% and 20%, respectively). ). Approximately eight out of ten parents do not object to the fact that disabled people with musculoskeletal disorders study in the same class as their children, while only 16% of teachers would agree to teach in such a class. Every second teacher will need retraining if the educational integration of children with disabilities does take place on a wider scale than it is happening now.

And about 1/5 of the teachers consider themselves quite prepared for such a situation, at least they do not expect any special changes in their professional status, career or in their own qualifications. The opinions of parents and teachers agreed on what consequences they expect from the integration of disabled children into a mass school: more than 2/3 of the respondents (73% and 69% respectively) believe that this will allow students to become more tolerant, learn to help each other and care, although conflicts between children are not excluded (every fifth parent and every fourth teacher are inclined to this opinion). Opinions about the impact of integration on education were distributed almost symmetrically: 10% of teachers and 22% of parents expect the quality of education to increase, while 21% of teachers and 13% of parents fear the opposite.

It is interesting that the number of those who associate integration processes with the growth of democracy is significantly larger among parents than among teachers, although in general this connection is quite clearly explicated by both groups of respondents (62% and 45%, respectively). Answering the question about what hinders the educational integration of disabled children today, parents and teachers were in solidarity on a number of positions. In the first place, all respondents put the imperfection of the environment, including the features of architecture and design, transport and other elements of the physical space, but for teachers such factors as the lack of appropriate educational programs, their own qualifications and, of course, funding, as well as the lack of development of appropriate regulatory support , – are of greater importance than for parents (Table 1).

Table 1

What hinders the integration of disabled children into mainstream schools?
(Parents N=260, teachers N=276)

Environmental barriers

School funding

Teacher qualifications

Educational programs

Legislation

Social attitudes in society

Preferences of parents of children with disabilities

Parents

79,3

78,1

74,8

64,4

57,8

49,6

teachers

97,7

84,6

87,9

90,5

74,3

59,5

46,5

It is obvious that most schools and universities are not ready to meet disabled applicants: there is neither an equipped environment nor special programs designed for such training. After all, equal opportunities for education do not at all exclude, but, on the contrary, involve the creation of a special educational environment for the disabled (personal assistant mentor, special elevators and transporters in all educational institutions, specialized keyboards for people with visual impairments or physical disabilities). Only in some universities there are centers for teaching students with disabilities.

conclusions

We discussed a number of approaches to the analysis of inequality in education, which is expressed, in particular, in the processes of social exclusion of persons with disabilities. The concepts and principles of the new philosophy of inclusive education, in our opinion, can be useful in the domestic practice of educational integration, the data of sociological surveys make it possible to orient politicians and subjects of the education system in the possible difficulties and prospects for teaching disabled children in a general education school.

The results of the surveys show that social attitudes towards educational integration depend on a number of factors, among which the most significant is the experience of interacting with people with disabilities in everyday life. The most significant differences in opinions are between those respondents who have never seen disabled people or only met them on the street, and those who have relatives or acquaintances of disabled children. This is another argument in favor of the fact that integrated education today can rightfully be considered one of the priorities of the state educational policy in Russia. At the same time, there are a number of objective obstacles to such a reform of the educational system, among which a significant place is occupied by the unsuitability of the school environment, the unpreparedness of teaching staff and the inadequate financing of the education system.

Today, this topical issue is not discussed enough, although some educational institutions are acting ahead of the curve, anticipating the centralized reforms that are just around the corner. According to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, despite economic and social difficulties, work is underway in the system of higher institutions to create conditions for the accessibility of higher professional education for disabled people. But so far, unified standards for organizing educational and rehabilitation processes have not been developed, mechanisms for logistical, social, psychological, pedagogical, personnel and rehabilitation support have not been developed. It is necessary to approve the state standard for the vocational rehabilitation of disabled people and organize a system of special training and retraining, advanced training of teachers in the context of integrated education. Obviously, universities should develop more active activities to ensure the accessibility of higher education for people with disabilities, create a barrier-free environment and develop new learning technologies. To this end, a concept of a federal system of integrated secondary and higher vocational education for disabled people should be developed, as well as appropriate legal and regulatory support for vocational education for disabled people and recommendations for compiling the staffing table for schools and universities where disabled people study.

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Educational integration of children with disabilities

Under the conditions of socio-economic transformations in Russia, the processes of social stratification are deepening, indicators of poverty and polarization of population groups in the social structure of society are growing in terms of income, as well as orientations towards various life support strategies, including the choice of higher education as a necessary condition for development and social mobility of citizens. At the same time, the alienation of a number of social groups from the opportunities to receive higher education is increasing due to unfavorable starting conditions, often determined not by learning abilities and individual efforts to acquire knowledge, but by multiple factors of social deprivation. Disabled people, in particular, pupils of boarding schools, occupy a special place among such social groups. Analysis of the accessibility of education for representatives of this group is an important task in the institutional regulation of social policy. In this chapter, we outline the prospects for studying the factors of access to education, consider the arguments in favor of integrated education, reveal the basic concepts and principles of educational integration, and also present some data from sociological surveys on the problem of teaching children with disabilities in a general education school.

The problem of access to education for children with disabilities in the context of research on social inequality

The analysis of disability in the context of education allows the problematization of social inequality in a new way, despite the fact that education has been seen as a means of achieving equality since the Enlightenment. On the one hand, the understanding of education as a public good is characteristic of the concept of a welfare state, which should provide its citizens with equal opportunities for access to social values. Arming people with knowledge, education helps them to take their rightful place in society, thereby helping to mitigate social inequality. On the other hand, sociological studies carried out in the West and in Russia since the 1960s have shown that education is more inclined to reflect and confirm existing inequalities than to contribute to its elimination. D.L. Konstantinovsky believes that the myth of equality of opportunity is one of the most attractive for a socialist state, representing an important part of the ideology of the Soviet period until a certain point, until sociologists began to refute it. In the 60s, a study was conducted by V.N. Shubkin, which demonstrated that Soviet society is by no means free from inequality in the education system, the transmission of statuses, and other phenomena of this kind that are also characteristic of other societies. Domestic researchers studied social stratification, the mechanisms of social mobility associated with the education system.

Projects carried out in the 1960s and 70s in a number of countries around the world demonstrated that social and family circumstances have the greatest influence on the results of schooling; this subsequently determines the level of income. The effectiveness of the educational process has been shown to be affected by the social background of students, which determines "the inequality in which children are placed by their home, their neighborhood, their environment." These and similar studies have sparked a debate about the need for integrated education for children from different racial groups and social strata. Some modern Russian sociologists are working in the same direction, emphasizing the continuity and transmission through the educational system of those social and class differences that exist outside of education. At the same time, the probability of obtaining a higher education is an indicator of social inequality.

British studies in the 1980s confirmed findings about social inequalities outside the school, and questioned why schools themselves tend to perpetuate and reproduce inequalities. And yet, improving the quality of teaching, creating a healthy social climate in the school and the practical orientation of schooling, as the researchers believed, could help children from poor families, as well as improve their performance for graduates of boarding schools.

The work of P. Bourdieu had a great influence on understanding the reproduction of inequality in education. According to Bourdieu, education is an instrument of symbolic violence, taking the form of classificatory conflicts, in which warring factions try to impose, as the only legitimate, their view of the world, their classificatory schemes, their idea of "who (and for what reasons) should be considered who" . In this and his later works, Bourdieu suggests looking for an answer to the classic question of sociology about the reproduction of social inequality in the education system and in other cultural institutions. Schools and universities relay inherently unequal socioeconomic conditions into varying degrees of endowment; therefore, universities that are nominally open to everyone actually get only those who have certain habits, who have assimilated the necessary social and cultural dispositions.

Since about the mid-1960s, it has become clear to sociologists that disabled children, especially graduates of boarding schools, in the education system join the least qualified socio-professional groups, occupying low-status positions that do not require quality training or abilities, bring low income and have the lowest prestige. The acquisition of quality secondary and higher education by children with disabilities is hampered by multiple structural constraints that are characteristic of societies with a complex stratification structure. In sociological analysis, inequality of access to social benefits is defined by the concept of deprivation associated with poverty and other forms of social disadvantage. In the 1970s in Great Britain, studies led by M. Brown and N. Madge demonstrated the difficulty of identifying and even defining deprivation, which appears in various forms. The concept of “multiple deprivation” was introduced, meaning the intersection and overlap of factors of unequal access to various kinds of socially approved values.

The phenomenon of "transferable deprivation" is close in meaning to the concept of the cycle of deprivation, introduced into circulation in the study of the so-called "culture of poverty" by US sociologists. Scientists of this direction believed that the shortcomings of education lead to the formation of a generation, which in turn reproduces the same shortcomings that were characteristic of their parents. The concept of a culture of poverty was introduced by O. Lewis to refer to the lifestyle of slum dwellers: in such an environment, children are socialized into the appropriate culture of their parents and form appropriate claims and lifestyles; in this vein, for example, the dependent attitudes of the poor are discussed. In the 1990s, the problem of poverty, as the most pressing aspect of social inequality, became the subject of research by a number of Russian sociologists.

Foreign researchers have devoted their research to the problem of intelligence and its assessment in the education system. Since in modern Russia there is a practice of teaching disabled children not only in boarding schools, but also in public schools, in such situations classificatory conflicts, both of an identification nature and in relation to academic performance, are clearly manifested. Since the responsibility for learning outcomes rests with teachers, as a result, most attention is paid to the best, most capable, and disabled children, being “stepsons and stepdaughters” of the education system, are deprived of the privilege of teacher attention and are forced into the social and academic bottom of the school hierarchy. In the analysis of the problems of teaching disabled children in mass schools, it is also productive to refer to the theories of language codes, organizational development and the hidden curriculum, as well as cultural reproduction.

It is obvious that the quality of human resources in society depends not only on the quality of academic training, but also, among other things, on the social experience accumulated by the individual, social competence, the ability to social adaptation and development of the individual. This quality in the UNESCO program documents is called the functional literacy of the population. The concept of functional illiteracy, which manifests itself in "the inability to use changing situations and manage life circumstances", can be applied to the analysis of the situation of children with disabilities. From our point of view, the growth of functional illiteracy can be stopped and reduced if the task of expanding the access of socially vulnerable groups of the population to social benefits and prestigious channels of socialization is carried out, thereby regulating the dynamics of the development of the socio-professional structure of society and preventing the marginalization of large social groups. In order to improve the functional literacy of children with disabilities, civic education and personal growth programs should be developed using modern active teaching and training methods. In turn, this will improve the social competence of children with disabilities, form the motivation to receive higher education. Such initiatives can only be successfully developed if the appropriate regulatory and institutional conditions are in place. The normative conditions include the development of rights and guarantees, and the institutional conditions include the formation of such an educational environment in which the principles of tolerance, integration and partnership would be developed.

Theory and practice of inclusive education of children with disabilities abroad

In a number of countries around the world, starting around the 1970s, a package of regulations has been developed and implemented to expand the educational opportunities for people with disabilities. The implementation of such laws and other documents is expressed in a set of positive discrimination measures. This is a system of privileges in society for obtaining equal opportunities for a discriminated group. In order for the system of positive discrimination to function, so-called affirmative actions are applied - measures to promote minority representatives by reducing the privileges of the majority group. Politicians, sociologists, activists of public organizations today are discussing the issue of expanding the access of socially vulnerable groups to high-quality secondary and higher education. In this regard, they talk about the formation of a system of political and economic influence on the student body of higher education, including measures to prepare students from socially vulnerable strata for admission to a university and create the most favorable environment in the process of their education (in particular, is about people with disabilities, representatives of migrant families, racial minorities, the poor, the rural population).

In the recent history of the educational policy of the United States and Europe, several approaches have been developed: school desegregation, widening participation, integration, mainstreaming, and inclusion. Mainstreaming refers to such a strategy when students with disabilities communicate with their peers on holidays, in various leisure programs, and even if they are included in mass school classes, then primarily in order to increase their opportunities for social contacts, but not to achieve educational goals. goals. Integration means bringing the needs of children with mental and physical disabilities into line with an education system that remains generally unchanged: mainstream schools are not adapted for children with disabilities (and students with disabilities, attending a public school, do not necessarily study in the same classes as everyone else). other children). Inclusion is the most modern term, which is interpreted as follows: it is the reform of schools and the redevelopment of classrooms in such a way that they meet the needs and requirements of all children without exception.

The approaches mentioned are based on several theoretical perspectives: the theory of social justice, human rights, the theory of social systems in relation to human development, social constructivism, information society, structuralism, social criticism. If we talk about the theory of systems in the aspect of the education of disabled people, then we should mention the works of W. Bronfenbrenner, who showed that human development is a process in which a maturing, growing individual acquires an increasingly broad, differentiated and adequate view of the environment. This is due to the fact that over time, children are included with great interest in an increasing number of activities and contacts, changing their social environment. Therefore, it would be wrong to control the behavior of students, rather, it is necessary to develop self-management skills in them.

Another concept in the same vein is presented by Brim, who argues that each person actually has their own curriculum, their own rules, and we would never be able to participate in any group activity if we did not learn the rules of the group. Likewise, students must - for better or worse - learn how to survive in school, and teachers must teach them the social and organizational structure of the school. However, teachers must recognize that in schools students are being asked to behave in ways they would not do outside of school - at home or on the street, in the community. No matter how hard the educators and teachers try to “domesticate” the space of the boarding school, it still remains “official”, not replacing a home and family, but also not providing students with wide opportunities for social adaptation to an independent life after school. Thus, the very nature of the school is a problem for students with disabilities. In special education settings, we are faced with the dilemma of helping students adjust to school, survive in school, while at the same time helping them develop the self-management and decision-making skills they will need in adult life in society.

Compulsory schooling was introduced in the United States from 1875 to 1914, in connection with which classes were formed for children who were considered mentally underdeveloped, as well as for those who were considered "incorrigible for their behavior", deaf or physically disabled. During this same period, the National Education Association created the Department of Special Education. IQ tests evolved, immigrants flooded in, an organized labor force grew, and psychological theories developed. All these factors influenced the school system, which developed the principles for measuring and defining individual differences and potential. In the 60s and 70s, voices of criticism are heard against the school, which is to blame for the failures of the students. Jane Mercer's research emphasized that each social system gives a person new definitions, so disability is a product of social arrangements.

In 1962, Reinolde proposed and then I. Deno improved the concept of a cascade of services. This cascade, or continuum, provides a model for designing services to meet the needs of individual students and ranges from hospital and home schooling to special schools, special classes, and finally regular mainstream school classrooms. The Education for All Children with Disabilities Act 1977 lists appropriate additional services needed to assist children with disabilities receive special education: transportation, speech therapy, audiology, psychological services, physical therapy, recreation, occupational therapy, early identification, medical services, school doctor or nurse, school social worker, psychologist, social work services for children and families, parent counseling and training. In the 1990s, the United States passed the Education for All Children with Disabilities Act, with its principle of individualized learning, as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

M. Reynolds writes the history of special education as a gradual progress towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in the mainstream school system - in relation to the location of schools, selection principles. This researcher argues that improved learning in mainstream school settings will lead to a reduction in the number of children sent to special classes and special schools, and that in many ways the programs provided for students with various types of disabilities do not differ from the programs in which the so-called children study. in a risk situation. In addition, he believes that today in American society there is a steady increase in interest in restructuring schools so that they can include all students.

Thus, we are talking about inclusion, or inclusion, a concept relating to the principle of organizing learning, in which all students study together with their peers in a school in their place of residence. The concept of inclusion was introduced into the theory and policy of contemporary education through the work of Ms. Madeleine Will, former Assistant Secretary of State for the US Department of Education. Will argues that special educators should question the effectiveness of pull-out services for many students with disabilities. These are services that remove students from classes at the time when classes are going on there. First of all, it was about the fact that children who were difficult to teach were sent to special classes, thereby several groups intersected in the population of schoolchildren in special institutions - children with disabilities, with learning difficulties (with "pedagogical neglect" or mental retardation) and with difficult behavior (for example, with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). In addition, the researchers were concerned that children, once in a special institution, from there never returned to a public school.

The principle of inclusive education is that the diversity of needs of students with disabilities should be matched by a continuum of services, including an educational environment that is the least restrictive and the most inclusive. This concept marks the next step in comparison with integration and mainstreaming. Inclusive schools educate all children in classrooms and schools in the community. This principle means that: 1) all children must be included in the educational and social life of the school where they live; 2) inclusion means including someone from the beginning, not integration, which means bringing someone back; 3) the task of an inclusive school is to build a system that meets the needs of everyone; 4) in inclusive schools, all children, not just children with disabilities, are provided with support that allows them to be successful, feel safe and appropriate.

Inclusive schools are aimed at fundamentally different educational achievements than TC, which is most often recognized as education. The purpose of such a school is to give all students the opportunity to have the most fulfilling social life, the most active participation in the team, the local community, thereby ensuring the most complete interaction and care for each other as members of the community. This value imperative obviously shows that all members of the school and society are interconnected, and that students not only interact with each other in the learning process, but also reinforce each other when they make decisions about the processes in the classroom.

Teachers working in schools on the principles of inclusion assume the following responsibility: to teach all students who are assigned to them; make flexible decisions in teaching and monitor them; provide education in accordance with the typical curriculum, adapting the details when the progress achieved by children differs from what is expected; be able to teach to a diverse audience; seek, use and coordinate support for students requiring more intensive services than those provided by their peers. Researchers talk about the "experience of transformation" experienced by educators who have become inclusive teachers. These are gradual transformations that involve teachers who want to:

1) interact with students who are different from their peers;

2) master the skills necessary for the education of all students;

3) change their attitudes towards students who are different from their peers.

Those teachers who already have experience working on the principles of inclusive education have developed the following ways of inclusion:

1) accept students with disabilities "like any other children in the class";

2) include them in the same activities, although set different tasks;

3) involve students in cooperative learning and group problem solving;

4) use active and participatory strategies - manipulations, games, projects, laboratories, field research.

Inclusive learning communities are changing the role of the teacher in many ways. Lipsky and Gartner believe that teachers help to activate the potential of students by collaborating with other teachers in an interdisciplinary environment without artificially distinguishing between special and mass educators. Teachers are involved in a variety of interactions with students, so that they get to know each individually. In addition, teachers are involved in extensive social contacts outside the school, including with learning resources and parents.

Pinnel and Galloway give the following system of principles for the development and management of the classroom in line with inclusive education: teachers recognize that students make a significant contribution to the learning process; learning occurs only when students feel the need to change or know about something; learning is a holistic process, not a set of separate pieces of information or skills; teachers recognize the power of classroom social context over learning; teachers develop a personal understanding of learning and development; teachers are involved in what is happening in their classrooms and cannot remain indifferent to it.

Discursive justifications for inclusive education

Analyzing the main arguments in understanding new trends in the development of education in the West, Alan Dyson proposes to single out the following types of discursive justification for inclusion. The discourse of rights and ethics is fixed in the sociological reflection of the reproduction of inequality in the mass school in the 1950s-1970s, criticism of special schools in the 1980s, modern studies of education in the interpretive and critical paradigms. According to their findings, special education only appears to protect vulnerable children by providing them with educational and health services. In fact, special education, by segregating disabled children into separate schools, serves the interests of the wealthy members of society, keeping and rationalizing the further marginalization of those whom it supposedly helps. The special education establishment is creating an alternative platform for educating problem children, whose demands and needs would otherwise bring about the revolutionary changes that are so needed in the mainstream school. Special education creates an area where teachers, doctors, psychiatrists, and other experts can exercise power and maintain privileged positions. It legitimizes the treatment of children and adults with disabilities as deviants, preventing the slightest restructuring of the social order, and thus contributes to their further oppression. Thus, the placement of a child in a special school is inextricably linked to issues of rights and justice.

The Discourse of Efficiency and Efficiency - A Study of Economic Costs and Academic Performance. These works refer to the 1980-90s and demonstrate the advantages of integrated education in terms of benefits, benefits, achievements. In developed countries, schools receive funding for children with special needs, so they are interested in increasing the number of students officially registered in this way.

Political discourse uses such key terms as struggle, movement, interests, individual and collective action. This includes publications from the 1990s on the problem of self-organization of parents of children with disabilities, the social activity of adults with disabilities and those who advocate for their rights, for the expansion of life chances and against the medicalist approach to social protection and rehabilitation. Pragmatic discourse is of particular importance today, when a certain consensus has already been formed in the academic environment, and the principles of inclusive education are set forth not only in scientific journals and monographs, but also on the pages of textbooks, in practical guides for teachers, social workers, physicians, other specialists, and also for managers and politicians. Such developments, based on empirical research and the generalization of pedagogical experience, lead to the understanding that methodological and organizational changes carried out in the interests of children with learning difficulties, under certain conditions, can benefit all children. In other words, the inclusion of children with special needs in the educational situation of the mainstream school can be a catalyst for change that can significantly improve the learning environment for all.

At present, it is no longer just the rationale for the importance of inclusive education that is being updated - a critical mass of arguments has already been accumulated abroad in favor of such a principle of organizing education for people with disabilities. Now it is important to have a dialogue of inclusions, so to speak, allowing practitioners and researchers to consider problems and perspectives, differences and similarities, opportunities and barriers that exist in their real experience. The real institutional opportunities to improve the accessibility and quality of higher education for such a category of applicants as the disabled, first of all, include legal benefits for admission to secondary and higher educational institutions, benefits for the material support of students, as well as legal norms on the autonomy of universities. The legislation regulating the receipt of higher education by Russian citizens and the legitimacy of special conditions for entering a university for certain categories of applicants is represented by a number of regulatory documents, primarily the Law of the Russian Federation "On Education", adopted in July 1992, which has since been changed several times and was supplemented. Invariant benefits are those that relate to socially vulnerable groups of the population, in respect of which positive discrimination should be carried out, including “disabled children, disabled people of groups I and II, who, according to the conclusion of the institution of the State Service for Medical and Social Expertise, are not contraindicated in studying in the relevant educational institutions...

However, in 1999-2001, Saratov State Technical University (SSTU), for example, received, using benefits, only from 0.8 to 2% of applicants from the entire enrollment. This indicates, among other things, the low level of training of socially vulnerable groups and the weakness of their motivation to receive higher education. It should be noted that the dynamics of the recruitment of applicants from socially vulnerable groups, including those entering on preferential terms, are not actually taken into account in universities. Such statistics in Russia are not taken into account in the rankings of universities, in contrast to the indicators of the competition and the amount of extrabudgetary funds, while in the UK, for example, on the number of students representing the social groups of the poor, migrants, disabled people, as well as on the availability of programs to prepare these applicants for admission the amount of targeted budget financing depends on the university.

Problems and Prospects of Educational Integration of Disabled Children in Russia

In many post-socialist countries, educational policy is trying to abandon the system of special schools. The number of children in specialized boarding schools in Eastern Europe is declining, while the number of special education students in mainstream schools is growing. Differences in the economic and political development of the states of this region affect the pace and content of the integration process. For example, in Bulgaria the implementation of the law on integrated education (1995) was temporarily suspended due to the difficult economic situation, while in Lithuania a stable process of integration has been going on since 1991. In a number of countries, there is growing concern about the haste of integration, as children are not receiving adequate attention and training. In turn, in some countries, the decrease in the number of children in special schools indicates the collapse and extremely difficult situation of the special education system (Moldova, Kyrgyzstan). It should be noted that in a number of countries the reduction in the number of children in special schools occurs against the background of a decrease in the number of the child population as a whole. As for Russia, the number of children officially receiving disability benefits has increased dramatically: from 155,000 in 1990 to 454,000 in 1995 (1.3% of the total number of children). It is possible that some children with mental or physical disabilities are not included in the statistics and do not have access to education at all. In our opinion, the obstacles to integration here are the recession in the economy and the lack of financial resources; the inertia of state institutions, the interest of the administration of these institutions in maintaining the current situation, the medicalist approach to the classification of special needs inherited from former times, general and professional intolerance.

The transition to inclusive education in the domestic context, in principle, was already predetermined by the fact that Russia ratified the UN Conventions in the field of children's rights, the rights of people with disabilities: Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959); Declaration on the Rights of the Mentally Handicapped (1971); Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (1975); Convention on the Rights of the Child (1975). But in order for Russia to become a civilized country with a civilized education, it is necessary not only to adopt a law on special education, or on the education of persons with disabilities, but also to have a favorable public opinion on this issue, as well as create institutional conditions for the implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities. The education system in modern Russia is undergoing profound changes, various educational institutions are being transformed as a result of government reforms and under the influence of a market economy. At the same time, the values of social inclusion and integration are on the agenda, although public opinion on this issue is far from homogeneous.

Today, there are various forms of assistance in obtaining higher education for various socially vulnerable groups of the population: legislative regulation of the conditions for obtaining higher education, financial support, information support, social rehabilitation, positive discrimination. All these forms are at different stages of their development and have varying degrees of effectiveness. The bill of the Russian Federation "On the education of persons with disabilities (special education)", which has been awaiting adoption by the President of the Russian Federation since 1996, establishes the possibility of teaching disabled children in a public school, and in the Report of the State Council of the Russian Federation "The educational policy of Russia at the present stage "(2001) already speaks of the priority of integrated (inclusive) education of disabled children: "Children with health problems (disabled) should be provided by the state with medical and psychological support and special conditions for education in exceptional cases - in special boarding schools. Special education, which includes students with special needs, disabilities, is experiencing severe shocks due to funding cuts and structural changes. The social role of institutions such as boarding schools for children with developmental disabilities is being reassessed.

Special education, on the one hand, creates special conditions for meeting the needs of students in medical and pedagogical services, and on the other hand, it hinders the social integration of disabled people, limiting their life chances. The humanistic alternative is integrated or inclusive (joint) education, which can significantly reduce the processes of marginalization of children with disabilities. Inclusive education in the process of its implementation may face not only the difficulties of organizing a so-called barrier-free environment (the presence of ramps, a one-story school design, the introduction of sign language interpreters into the staff, the refurbishment of common areas), but also social difficulties, consisting in widespread stereotypes and prejudices including the willingness or refusal of teachers, schoolchildren and their parents to accept integration.

Of particular relevance today is the study of public opinion on the problems of accessibility of higher education and ways to solve them. The researchers set the task to find out what are the views of schoolchildren, students, their parents, teachers, employers, managers and lecturers of state and non-state universities, employees of state and non-state employment services about the differences in the quality of higher education (including bachelor's, master's, postgraduate studies in state and non-state universities) and in the opportunities to receive education of different quality. “There is a growing concern in society that students with low incomes, or those who are disadvantaged by remoteness or disability, are less likely to get a place in a university or continue their education later. Moreover, if a struggling young person does manage to get into a university, the choice of course of study or degree obtained at the end may be largely determined by the ability to pay for education. ... about some positive examples when regional administrations organize training for young people who were unable to enter universities due to financial difficulties or the remoteness of their place of residence. At the same time, student surveys record the opinion that “the opportunity to get a higher education most often depends on family income, on special agreements with the leadership of the university or faculty, or on the chance to get an education in a specialized gymnasium, after which it is much easier for young people to enroll in institutions."

In our research (D.V. Zaitsev, P.V. Romanov - survey of teachers, N=276, survey of parents, N=260, 2001-2002; I.I. Loshakova - survey of high school students, N=250, 2000-2001 ) we found out the attitude of teachers, secondary school students and their parents to the possibility of joint education with disabled children who have difficulties with movement, hearing, speech or vision impairments, mental retardation. It must be said that about 1/3 of the high school students we interviewed (N=250) never noticed the presence of disabled children in our society, about 40% saw them on the street, about 20% knew each other, but did not communicate, and about 10% had close contacts.

The analysis showed that the closest contacts, characterizing the relationship between good friends, comrades and relatives, are carried out between the students surveyed and children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system (12.4%) and with disabled children experiencing mental development disorders (12 ,9%). More rare among our respondents were contacts with those children who have speech, hearing or vision impairments (9.1%). And among those whom schoolchildren have only seen on the street, there are more disabled children with outward signs of disability (40.5%). Thus, about 70% of the respondents showed varying degrees of awareness of the problems of disability in children. The fact that only about 1/3 of the surveyed high school students had the opportunity to meet a disabled child, in our opinion, suggests that the opportunities for such acquaintance are small, and partly they are set by the institutional framework, in particular, the organization of the education system.

Rice. 1. How would you react to the fact that children with disabilities will study with you? (Senior students, N=250)

As can be seen (Fig. 1), the greatest tolerance for being in the same class is shown by our respondents in relation to children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system, and they are less tolerant of those who have hearing and vision impairments. The lowest level of tolerance was revealed in relation to children with intellectual disabilities - almost half of the lyceum students expressed the wish that they study in a separate school. It is quite obvious that in this case, a deeply rooted stereotype is revealed, the stigma of mental retardation, constructing serious barriers to the integration of both children and adults into society.

Despite the manifestation of intolerance towards certain forms of disability, the vast majority of respondents are convinced that it is necessary to take special actions in order for people with disabilities to become equal in rights (85%). As in the answers to the previous questions, such views are more typical of those who have personal experience of dealing with people with disabilities. More than half of these respondents believe that it is necessary to help people perceive people with disabilities without prejudice, and almost 40% of those surveyed believe that people with disabilities should be helped to live and work in conditions that would not restrict their movement - sound signals at traffic lights, entrances to shops for wheelchairs, accessible public spaces and transport.

It should be noted that about 70% of the interviewed parents (N=260) consider the educational integration of children with lesions of the musculoskeletal system to be possible, while less than 40% of respondents among teachers (N=276) are inclined to this opinion. Parents are also more tolerant of the idea of educational integration of children with other developmental disabilities: the number of those who have a positive attitude towards such an opportunity for children with speech, hearing and vision impairments is 16% higher than the number of teachers who agreed with this option (36% and 20%, respectively). ). Approximately eight out of ten parents do not object to the fact that disabled people with musculoskeletal disorders study in the same class as their children, while only 16% of teachers would agree to teach in such a class. Every second teacher will need retraining if the educational integration of children with disabilities does take place on a wider scale than it is happening now.

And about 1/5 of the teachers consider themselves quite prepared for such a situation, at least they do not expect any special changes in their professional status, career or in their own qualifications. The opinions of parents and teachers agreed on what consequences they expect from the integration of disabled children into a mass school: more than 2/3 of the respondents (73% and 69% respectively) believe that this will allow students to become more tolerant, learn to help each other and care, although conflicts between children are not excluded (every fifth parent and every fourth teacher are inclined to this opinion). Opinions about the impact of integration on education were distributed almost symmetrically: 10% of teachers and 22% of parents expect the quality of education to increase, while 21% of teachers and 13% of parents fear the opposite.

It is interesting that the number of those who associate integration processes with the growth of democracy is significantly larger among parents than among teachers, although in general this connection is quite clearly explicated by both groups of respondents (62% and 45%, respectively). Answering the question about what hinders the educational integration of disabled children today, parents and teachers were in solidarity on a number of positions. In the first place, all respondents put the imperfection of the environment, including the features of architecture and design, transport and other elements of the physical space, but for teachers such factors as the lack of appropriate educational programs, their own qualifications and, of course, funding, as well as the lack of development of appropriate regulatory support , - are of greater importance than for parents (Table 1).

Table 1

What hinders the integration of disabled children into mainstream schools? (Parents N=260, teachers N=276)

It is obvious that most schools and universities are not ready to meet disabled applicants: there is neither an equipped environment nor special programs designed for such training. After all, equal opportunities for education do not at all exclude, but, on the contrary, involve the creation of a special educational environment for the disabled (personal assistant mentor, special elevators and transporters in all educational institutions, specialized keyboards for people with visual impairments or physical disabilities). Only in some universities there are centers for teaching students with disabilities.

disabled inclusive education integration

We discussed a number of approaches to the analysis of inequality in education, which is expressed, in particular, in the processes of social exclusion of persons with disabilities. The concepts and principles of the new philosophy of inclusive education, in our opinion, can be useful in the domestic practice of educational integration, the data of sociological surveys make it possible to orient politicians and subjects of the education system in the possible difficulties and prospects for teaching disabled children in a general education school.

The results of the surveys show that social attitudes towards educational integration depend on a number of factors, among which the most significant is the experience of interacting with people with disabilities in everyday life. The most significant differences in opinions are between those respondents who have never seen disabled people or only met them on the street, and those who have relatives or acquaintances of disabled children. This is another argument in favor of the fact that integrated education today can rightfully be considered one of the priorities of the state educational policy in Russia. At the same time, there are a number of objective obstacles to such a reform of the educational system, among which a significant place is occupied by the unsuitability of the school environment, the unpreparedness of teaching staff and the inadequate financing of the education system.

Today, this topical issue is not discussed enough, although some educational institutions are acting ahead of the curve, anticipating the centralized reforms that are just around the corner. According to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, despite economic and social difficulties, work is underway in the system of higher institutions to create conditions for the accessibility of higher professional education for disabled people. But so far, unified standards for organizing educational and rehabilitation processes have not been developed, mechanisms for logistical, social, psychological, pedagogical, personnel and rehabilitation support have not been developed. It is necessary to approve the state standard for the vocational rehabilitation of disabled people and organize a system of special training and retraining, advanced training of teachers in the context of integrated education. Obviously, universities should develop more active activities to ensure the accessibility of higher education for people with disabilities, create a barrier-free environment and develop new learning technologies. To this end, a concept of a federal system of integrated secondary and higher vocational education for disabled people should be developed, as well as appropriate legal and regulatory support for vocational education for disabled people and recommendations for compiling the staffing table for schools and universities where disabled people study.

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Portal for the student. Self-training

Integrated education for children with disabilities. Integration means the inclusion of children with disabilities and children with disabilities in society as full members of it, actively

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Correctional Pedagogy

Notes

Links

36. Integrated and inclusive education.

Educational integration of children with disabilities

The problem of access to education for disabled children
in the context of research on social inequality

Theory and practice of inclusive education
disabled children abroad

Problems and prospects of educational integration
disabled children in Russia

conclusions

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Educational integration of children with disabilities

The problem of access to education for children with disabilities in the context of research on social inequality

Theory and practice of inclusive education of children with disabilities abroad

Discursive justifications for inclusive education

Problems and Prospects of Educational Integration of Disabled Children in Russia

Similar Documents

	Environmental barriers	School funding	Teacher qualifications	Educational programs	Legislation	Social attitudes in society	Preferences of parents of children with disabilities
Parents		79,3	78,1	74,8	64,4	57,8	49,6
teachers	97,7	84,6	87,9	90,5	74,3	59,5	46,5

Portal for the student. Self-training

Encyclopedic YouTube

Subtitles

Correctional Pedagogy

Notes

Links

36. Integrated and inclusive education.

Educational integration of children with disabilities

The problem of access to education for disabled children in the context of research on social inequality

Theory and practice of inclusive education disabled children abroad

Problems and prospects of educational integration disabled children in Russia

conclusions

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Educational integration of children with disabilities

The problem of access to education for children with disabilities in the context of research on social inequality

Theory and practice of inclusive education of children with disabilities abroad

Discursive justifications for inclusive education

Problems and Prospects of Educational Integration of Disabled Children in Russia

Similar Documents

RELATED ARTICLES

The problem of access to education for disabled children
in the context of research on social inequality

Theory and practice of inclusive education
disabled children abroad

Problems and prospects of educational integration
disabled children in Russia