Inclusion and education

FIGURE 6.1: 
One in two teachers in the region feels prepared to teach in mixed-ability settings and one in three in multicultural 
settings
Percentage of lower secondary school teachers who felt well or very well prepared for teaching in particular classroom settings, by 
year of graduation from teacher education programme, 2018
0
30
40
20
10
50
60
70
80
Latvia
Czech Rep.
Estonia
Croatia
Slovakia
Bulgaria
Georgia
Lithuania
Slovenia
Turkey
Kazakhstan
Russian Fed.
Hungary
Romania
Czech Rep.
Estonia
Croatia
Slovakia
Bulgaria
Slovenia
Hungary
Russian Fed.
Latvia
Georgia
Lithuania
Turkey
Romania
Kazakhstan
All teachers
EU 41%
EU 24%
Teachers who 
graduated in last 5 years
In a mixed-ability setting
In a multicultural or multilingual setting 
%
Note: 
The EU average refers to the 23 countries that took part in the 2018 TALIS.
Source: 
OECD (2019).
BOX 6.1: 
Teacher diversity is not representative of student diversity
A major aspect of being a teacher is serving as a role model. Students 
identify with teachers and think about their own future based on how 
they perceive the world around them. If there are no teachers with 
disabilities or from ethnic minorities, or if teachers in a given subject 
are mostly male or female, students may conclude that certain career 
paths are simply not possible for some groups. Teaching staff diversity 
reflects an education system’s commitment to values and principles of 
inclusion. Increased representation of teachers with different cultural 
backgrounds or with disabilities is linked to increased enrolment and 
well-being (Borker, 2017) and improved performance of students from 
these groups (Cherng and Halpin, 2016; Egalite et al., 2015).
Teachers in the region are often not representative of diversity in the 
overall population. Gender imbalance is significant. The average share 
of female lower secondary school teachers was 69% in EU countries 
overall, but among EU countries in the region it ranged from 73% in 
Romania to 89% in Latvia. In Montenegro and Slovakia, it is reported 
that there are no qualified teaching staff capable of teaching in the 
Roma language.
Some countries are making efforts to increase teacher diversity. 
Kazakhstan’s government offers preferential admission to teacher 
training universities for applicants from rural areas, with disabilities 
or from low socio-economic backgrounds (Kazakhstan Information-
Analytic Centre, 2017). In the Russian Federation, more than 90 ethnic 
minority languages are taught in schools, and there is considerable 
ethnic diversity among qualified teaching staff, even in large cities 
such as Moscow.
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Florian, 2012). The Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia and 
Serbia take this approach to initial teacher education. The 
second model focuses on special education courses aimed 
at producing specialists to support students. The courses 
may be mandatory but usually are optional, which means 
development of inclusive education skills depends on 
future teachers’ initiative. The courses are offered by 
subject faculties, teacher training faculties, pedagogical 
universities and other universities, most of which design 
their own curricula.
Some countries have made progress in preparing teachers 
for inclusion (
Box 6.2
). This may be one reason the 
2018 TALIS data show that teachers who had completed 
their teacher education programme in the previous five 
years reported slightly higher than average levels of 
preparedness to teach in mixed-ability or multicultural 
settings. Croatia has begun a national training 
programme for outcome-oriented learning to bring 
students to the centre of the education process. Poland 
has launched a reform of initial teacher education and 
professional development, guided by the Education for 
All principle. Romania’s curriculum framework revision to 
support inclusion in mainstream education also involves 
revision of teacher training and skills. These are all good 
starting points for improvement of teacher preparedness 
for inclusive education.
The Armenian State Pedagogical University offers four 
inclusion-related courses, two at bachelor and two at 
master level. One subject is mandatory and the other 
optional at each level. The mandatory subject at bachelor 
level is theory and practice of inclusive education; the 
optional subject is psycho-pedagogical assistance. 
At master level, organization of inclusive education is 
mandatory and assessment is optional. In Bulgaria, 
all pedagogical specialities in higher education include 
compulsory courses training teachers to work with 
students with special needs in intercultural education and 
in inclusive education.
The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of 
Montenegro has a master programme on inclusive 
education whose broader objective is to introduce the 
inclusion paradigm at university level and within the entire 
education system and to sensitize university staff. In 
Poland, as part of mandatory initial teacher education, 
students gain knowledge and skills to perform complex 
teaching, education and care-related tasks, including 
development and adaptation of curricula to meet all 
students’ needs and abilities.
However, some countries continue to follow a medical 
approach to education that emphasizes differences 
between learners and reinforces barriers to inclusion 
(Florian, 2019). In Ukraine, Ternopil National Pedagogical 
University introduced a master programme on inclusive 
education in 2019. It aims at developing professional 
competences for inclusive learning environments but puts 
considerable focus on correctional pedagogy and practices. 
In Uzbekistan, Tashkent State Pedagogical University offers 
a course on inclusive education but it is in the defectology 
faculty, a field based on the deficiency approach to 
education. Uzbekistan, like Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
Tajikistan and Turkey, does not incorporate any inclusion-
related topics in initial teacher education.
Initial teacher education across the region mostly takes 
a somewhat theoretical approach to inclusion and rarely 
enables future teachers to gain experience in inclusive 
environments through internship or practical training. 
Among the 30 education systems reviewed in the region, 
only 10 include inclusion-related practice and internships 
in initial teacher education: Bulgaria, Croatia, the 
Czech Republic, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, the Republic
of Moldova, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
Two universities in Hungary have tried to address this 
issue. The teacher training institute of the University of 
Miskolc builds professional partnerships with schools in 
the region, and university staff collaborate with school 
staff to offer practical experience to teacher candidates 
who, in turn, are expected to work voluntarily with 
disadvantaged learners from Roma and other communities. 
The Institute of Education at the University of Pécs also 
engages in partnership with schools where future teachers 
can practice.
Lengthy accreditation processes for new courses and 
programmes mean it takes time to align them with inclusion 
policies. Resistance to adaptation by academic staff and lack 
of consensus on adding new content to programmes are 
related problems. Albanian universities vary hugely in the 
programmes offered (Wort et al., 2019). In North Macedonia, 
Some countries continue to follow a medical approach to education that 
emphasizes differences between learners and reinforces barriers
to inclusion
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initial primary school teacher education includes optional 
classes on inclusion, but the initial education curriculum of 
subject teachers has no inclusion-related topics.
Even where systems integrate inclusion-related topics 
into teacher education, competences in inclusion are not 
always required for teacher licensing and certification. 
In Serbia, prospective teachers must demonstrate 
competences in a classroom to be licensed, but it need not 
be a mixed-ability or multicultural classroom. Attendance 
of inclusion-related courses during in-service professional 
development is obligatory for attestation, a process in 
which teachers’ skills and accomplishments are regularly 
assessed. In the Russian Federation, by contrast, licensing 
is automatic upon receipt of a university diploma and does 
not require demonstration of practical classroom skills, 
let alone inclusion-related skills. With federal standards 
lacking such requirements, pedagogical universities are 
under no pressure to introduce inclusive education courses. 
Uzbekistan lacks both a qualification framework and 
teacher professional standards, whose absence results in 
ineffective teacher selection and appointment.
In-service teacher education fills gaps, but not 
systematically
Initial teacher education programmes are slow to respond 
to demands brought about by new policies or emerging 
situations. Continuing professional development, offered 
through national services such as training institutes, 
universities and professional bodies or through non-
government organizations (NGOs), can help teachers 
update and broaden their skills. Another approach to in-
service training is through networks (
Box 6.3
).
Evidence from the 2018 TALIS showed that teachers in 
the region were more likely to have received professional 
development than their EU peers in at least three of 
four inclusion-related areas. The area with the largest 
disparity in exposure of lower secondary school teachers 
to such training was approaches to individualized learning. 
More than 7 in 10 teachers had received training in 
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia and the Russian Federation, 
compared with fewer than 3 in 10 in Hungary and Slovakia 
(
Figure 6.2
). It is also important to consider that the 
alignment of such training with principles of inclusiveness 
may vary considerably between countries.