Features of readiness of future teachers to implement inclusive education: challenges, realities, and target guidelines

Statement of the problem. Inclusive educational practice (variability of categories of students and educational models) has led to the emergence of new requirements for the professional training of future educators – the formation of abilities to organize and implement educational activities in the conditions of a preschool educational organization, taking into account the special educational needs of children and their parents. The purpose of the article is to identify the characteristics of the personal and professionally significant attitude of future educators to inclusive education as one of the aspects of their inclusive readiness, based on which the priority target guidelines for their professional training are determined. The methodology (materials and methods) of the study is built on the ideas of a competency-based approach in terms of the formation and development of professional competencies in future teachers to perform professional tasks in inclusive educational practice and the methodological principles of inclusive education (humanization, individualization, accessibility, openness, interdisciplinarity, variability, resource approach, etc.). The study involved 63 full-time university students studying in the following professional training profiles: “Preschool Education”; “Preschool Education” and “Organization of Educational (Leisure) Activities” and “Preschool Psychology with the Basics of Psychology”. To identify the characteristics of the personal and professionally significant attitude of future educators to inclusive education, the developed questionnaire “Attitude of Future Educators to the Implementation of Inclusive Education Ideas in Preschool Educational Practice” was used, consisting of closed and open questions; the express questionnaire “Tolerance Index” (G.U. Soldatova, O.A. Kravtsova, O.E. Khuklaev, L.A. Shaigerova) and “Diagnostics of the Empathy Level” (I.M. Yusupov) were also applied. Research results. The features of the readiness of future educators to implement inclusive education were revealed. They consist in the manifestation of an insufficient level of development of psychological readiness to interact with children with special educational needs (SEN) / with disabilities (DP), that affected the assessment of various personal characteristics, including tolerance and empathy. Based on the analysis of educational theory and practice, target guidelines for the formation of inclusive readiness of future educators were identified. Conclusion. The identified difficulties of future educators in the implementation of inclusive educational practice allowed us to assert the advisability of changes in professional training, which should reflect the continuity and end-to-end transfer of inclusive ideas and practices, starting from the first year, to achieve higher and more sustainable results in the motivational and value component of the inclusive readiness of current practicing teachers.