General Education Teachers and Parents of Neurotypical Learners: A Comparative Analysis of Inclusive Dispositions

Introduction. The institutionalization of inclusive education defines a new context for considering issues of school-family cooperation, actualizing the tasks of building complementary interaction between teachers of general education organizations and parents of not only children with disabilities but also neurotypical learners. Since the optimization of school-parent relationships requires a transition to value-semantic interaction, the basis for interaction between teachers and parents in the context of inclusive education should be the subjective values and meanings that both parties associate with inclusion and which are embodied in their inclusive dispositions. However, the inclusive dispositions of teachers in general education organizations and parents of neurotypical schoolchildren have not yet been the subject of special comparative study. The aim of the research is to identify commonalities and specifics in the inclusive dispositions of these participants in inclusive educational relationships. Materials and Methods. The study involved 759 general education teachers and 701 parents of neurotypical learners from seven federal districts of the Russian Federation. Both original and adapted diagnostic tools were employed, including: the authors’ method for assessing teachers’ inclusive self-identification, the Wilczenski Scale for measuring attitudes toward inclusive education, and a questionnaire on professional dispositions. Results. Against the backdrop of identified reliable shifts in teachers’ assessments of their own inclusive dispositions and their prevalence among most other teachers, as well as in parents’ assessments of the inclusive dispositions of most teachers and ideal teachers, factor analysis reveals a similar latent structure of inclusive dispositions and attitudes towards inclusive education among teachers and parents of neurotypical learners. This similarity extends to the aspect of its comparative acceptability for children with different types of developmental disorders. Despite the differentiating influence of socio-demographic variables, there exists a core set of values and meanings that is common to teachers and parents of neurotypical learners as participants in inclusive educational relationships. It is precisely this zone of commonality in inclusive dispositions that defines the real value-semantic space of their interaction. Discussion and Conclusion. The research materials may be of interest to administrators and educators in inclusive educational institutions, as well as to representatives of parent advocacy groups, for the purpose of optimizing school–family partnerships in the context of the institutionalization of inclusive education.