Inclusion and education

TEACHERS ARE NOT WELL PREPARED TO 
WORK IN INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENTS
Teacher education and training for inclusion should 
prepare teachers to value learner diversity, considering it 
as a resource, and to support all learners and have high 
expectations for them all. Such education and training 
should also encourage teachers to work with others and 
in teams, and should support their continuing personal 
and professional development (European Agency, 2012).
Countries differ in the ways their initial teacher education 
and in-service professional development programmes 
integrate inclusion-related topics and develop skills for 
inclusive education. In some countries, modules or entire 
programmes focus on inclusive education; in others, 
subjects focus on specific groups, such as students 
with hearing or visual impairments. With the exception 
of a teacher college in Slovenia, where teachers are 
educated before becoming subject experts, teachers 
are initially trained as subject experts before developing 
pedagogical skills. Such differences affect teachers’ 
preparedness to work in a diversified classroom. Moreover, 
teacher certification or licensing is not based on skills 
demonstrated in the classroom.
Many teachers feel insufficiently prepared to teach in 
challenging environments. Among 14 countries in the 
region only about one in two teachers responding to 
the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey 
(TALIS) said they felt prepared to work in mixed-ability 
classrooms and one in three felt ready for culturally 
diverse classrooms. In the Czech Republic, the respective 
In some countries, modules or entire initial 
teacher education programmes focus on 
inclusive education; in others, subjects 
focus on specific groups
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C E N T R A L A N D E A S T E R N E U R O P E , C A U C A S U S A N D C E N T R A L A S I A

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ratios were 1 in 5 and 1 in 10. A possible reason for the 
low numbers is limited teaching force diversity (
Box 6.1
). 
Yet countries in the region reported higher levels of 
preparedness, on average, than European Union (EU) 
countries (
Figure 6.1
), although this should be seen in the 
context of classrooms in the region being less diverse 
than in EU countries (see 
Chapter 3
).
Inclusion is integrated in initial teacher education 
in various ways
There are two basic models of teacher education for 
inclusion. The first relies on a cross-curricular approach 
and emphasizes practical experience, following the 
principle that inclusion should be at the core of general 
teacher education and not a specialist topic (Rouse and