Inclusive education in Eastern European countries: a current state and future directions

ABSTRACT

Inclusive education is key to the development of civic democracy. Its role is to transform schools into platforms of excellence and equality for all students. This literature review aims to summarize the current state of inclusive education in Eastern European countries and former Soviet states and to identify conditions necessary for their educational systems to become more inclusive. The review: (a) discusses the concept of inclusive education as a platform for civic democracy; (b) conceptualizes how historical contexts affect societal attitudes and values towards difference and disability; (c) explores the extent to which available research captures the current state of inclusive education in Eastern Europe, and (d) describes the barriers to inclusive education implementation in these countries. The results of the review show the majority of studies examined attitudes toward inclusive education and people with disabilities. In this regard, although most of participants surveyed accept inclusive education initiatives in principle, they identify a range of barriers that need to be addressed to secure its meaningful implementation in the region. The review situates the possibility of inclusive education in the region’s historical context, identifies the structural and cultural barriers to its meaningful implementation, and suggests directions for future research.     

Exploring factors related with resilience in primary education: Evidence from European countries

This paper analyses factors associated with resilience in an educational context. In this framework, resilient students are those able to achieve excellent academic results despite their disadvantaged socioeconomic background. Over the last decade, this topic has generated a growing interest among researchers in the field of education economics. However, most efforts to date have focused on secondary education. By contrast, this study examines the main determinants of this phenomenon in primary education by exploiting the information available in the latest two waves of the TIMSS (2015) and PIRLS (2016) databases for all participating European countries (18). The results show that the skills learned by students before starting school and the socioeconomic status of their classmates are the factors that contribute most to stimulating the academic achievement of more socioeconomically disadvantaged students.     

Noise Rather than Numbers: Access to higher education in three European countries

This paper explores a number of special alternative arrangements for adults to access higher education in England and Wales, France and Germany and examines the impact on these arrangements of the relationship between the state and higher education in the three countries. The similarities and differences are analysed along two key dimensions: complexity-simplicity and rigidity-flexibility and the absence of clear statistical data in all three countries is accounted for by the way in which the various stakeholders justify their actions. Finally, Weiler's theory of compensatory legitimation is drawn on to assess the effectiveness of the policy innovations and to explain why the noise around them has been louder than the numbers involved might warrant.     

Why is it so difficult? Misconceptions about Eastern European education in transition

Eastern European educational systems today face many problems, frequently described in recent publications. This paper discusses several misconceptions both in Western and in Eastern countries, which render more difficult the change process. These concern the inherited situation, reforms underway, power relationships, decentralisation, the roles of tradition and Western assistance, curriculum, financial and statistical data and the relationship between education and society.

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Zusammenfassung Die osteuropäischen Bildungssysteme sehen sich heute vielen Problemen gegenüber, die häufig Thema von kürzlich erschienenen Publikationen sind. In diesem Artikel werden verschiedene sowohl im Westen als auch im Osten bestehende Mißverhältnisse angesprochen, durch die der Änderungsprozeß erschwert wird. Dazu gehören ererbte Zustände, im Gange befindliche Reformen, Machtverhältnisse, Dezentralisierung, die Rolle von Traditionen sowie von Hilfsleistungen aus dem Westen, das Curriculum, finanzielle und statistische Daten sowie die Beziehung zwischen Bildung und Gesellschaft.

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Résumé Les systèmes d'éducation de l'Europe orientale font face aujourd'hui à maints problèmes fréquemment présentés dans de récentes publications. Cet article traite de plusieurs méconceptions perçues à la fois dans les pays de l'Ouest que dans ceux de l'Est qui rendent plus difficile le processus de changement. Elles concernent la situation héritée, les réformes en cours, les relations de pouvoir, la décentralisation, les rôles de la tradition ainsi que de l'aide occidentale, le curriculum, les données financières et statistiques, et la relation entre l'éducation et la société.

     

Equality of opportunities in Spanish higher education

In the past few decades, there has been a sharp increase in the number of students attending higher education institutions in Spain. Many commentators believe that this expansion is associated with greater equality of opportunities as more university places offer greater potential for the advancement of students from poorer backgrounds. Unfortunately, this argument is not always true. In fact, there is empirical evidence that the expansion in higher education system disproportionately benefits children from relatively rich and well educated families. In that context, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the possible effects of socioeconomic background on the decision to complete a degree before leaving the educational system in Spain. Taking the data from the Spanish module data on school to work transitions, I estimate several logit models in order to detect the influence of personal and regional characteristics on the educational decisions. The results show that, in spite of the disappearance of universities for only the elite, socioeconomic variables heavily influence the demand for university education, so the equality of opportunities in this educational level has not been completely achieved.

Democracy in teacher education: Equality verses excellence

Abstract

This article discusses the difßculties that face colleges of education as they attempt to work with students who have special needs—disabilities, oral communication deficits, and emotional adjustment problems. Presenting a case study of faculty in the College of Education (COE) at a mid‐sized regional university, the article explores the dilemma resulting from efforts to mediate between those educators concerned with providing equality of opportunity and those concerned with upholding standards of excellence. At the COE in question, faculty opinions became polarized, with some faculty advocating “equality” and others advocating “standards.” From its analysis of faculty members' difficulties in resolving this dilemma, the article draws implications for democratic practice in teacher education.     

Educational support agencies in some European countries

Economic and social constraints in the '50s and '60s resulted in an increasing interest in educational matters. As a response it was felt that a more professional and scientific approach in education was needed. Thus the educational specialist entered the labour market and institutional frameworks for educational support developed. Despite the common societal context, each country acquired its own unique educational support system. It will be argued that national pecularities in educational support systems are related to educational traditions. In order to clarify this, educational support agencies in some European countries are defined in terms of: the institutional level at which educational support agencies operate; and the functions and roles of support agencies in the education systems concerned.

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Zusammenfassung Wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Einschränkungen führten in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren zu steigendem Interesse an Bildungsfragen. Man spürte, daß ein beruflich und wissenschaftlich verstärkter Ansatz zur Bildung notwendig wäre. Demzufolge betrat der Bildungsspezialist den Arbeitsmarkt, und institutionelle Rahmen für Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung der Bildung wurden geschaffen. Trotz des gemeinsamen gesellschaftlichen Kontextes entwarf jedes Land sein eigenes System zur Unterstützung der Bildung. Es wird hier argumentiert, daß die nationalen Eigenheiten dieser Systeme der jeweiligen Bildungstradition Rechnung tragen. Um diese Frage zu klären, werden Institutionen zur Unterstützung der Bildung in einigen europäischen Ländern anhand folgender Kriterien beschrieben: das institutionelle Niveau ihrer Tätigkeit; die Funktionen und Rollen der in Frage kommenden Institutionen innerhalb der betreffenden Bildungssysteme.

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Résumé Les contraintes économiques et sociales des années 50 et 60 onto suscité un intérêt accrû pour les questions d'éducation. On s'est alors rendu compte qu'une approche professionnelle et scientifique de celle-ci était nécessaire. Les spécialistes de l'éducation sont allés sur le marché du travail et les institutions pour promouvoir le soutien à l'éducation se sont développées. Malgré un contexte social commun, un système unique de soutien éducatif se développa dans chaque pays. On affirme que les particularités nationales notées dans ces systèmes se rapportent aux traditions éducatives. Pour éclaircir cette assertion, on définit les organismes de soutien à l'éducation dans certains pays en fonction du niveau institutionnel auquel ils opèrent et d'après les fonctions et rôles qui leur sont attribués dans les systèmes d'éducation concernés.

     

Measuring teaching quality in several European countries

Teaching quality has been observed in large representative samples from Flanders (Belgium), Lower Saxony (Germany), the Slovak Republic, and The Netherlands. This study reveals that measures of “creating a safe and stimulating climate”, “clear and activating instruction”, and “teaching learning strategies” were reliable and fully or at least partially scalar equivalent across these countries. Flemish teachers score higher, on average, on measures related to creating a safe and stimulating learning climate than do teachers in Lower Saxony, the Slovak Republic, or The Netherlands. With regard to the provision of clear and activating instruction, no significant differences arose in average scores across the 4 countries. Dutch teachers scored significantly higher on teaching learning strategies than teachers in Flanders and Lower Saxony but did not differ significantly from teachers in the Slovak Republic. Flemish and Slovak teachers earned higher average scores on teaching learning strategies than teachers in Lower Saxony.     

Prospects for inclusive education in European countries emerging from economic and other trauma: Serbia and Albania

This paper examines recent historical, social and economic factors in Albania and Serbia, identifying similarities and differences that have a bearing on the provision of education. The focus is on the education of children with difficulties in learning and/or disabilities (the term ‘special needs’ is used for brevity). The paper provides a summary of the past and present situation of children with special needs in both countries. The role and motivation of international non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in funding and developing inclusive educational policies and practices in both countries are examined. There are substantial barriers to inclusive education in Albania and Serbia. These are identified and discussed before examining more recent positive developments in both countries. Two individual examples of schools that are making progress are profiled, one from each country. Finally, the prospects for the future in both countries are examined, and the prediction made that in‐country efforts and developments will result in further slow and uneven progress towards inclusive education in Albania and Serbia. For any of this to happen, however, it will be important that conditions of economic recovery, social stability, the political drive towards Europe and its inclusive standards, and further help from international NGOs, prevail.