Scientific Collection «InterConf», (39): with the Proceedings of the 8th International Scientific and Practical Conference «Science and Practice: Implementation to Modern Society» (December 26-28, 2020) at Manchester, Great Britain

Keywords: special education teachers’ training, special education teachers’ 
preparation in the USA, special education teachers’ preparation in Ukraine, 
educational comparative studies, special education. 
 
The academic achievements of students, in particular students with special 
educational needs, depends to a large extent on the ability of the educational institution 
to involve a strong team of highly qualified professionals in the educational process. 
Then preparation of pedagogical staff for special education is of utmost importance, 
especially nowadays, during the modernization of Ukrainian education system, with 

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education current world standards aim, which places new demands on educational 
institutions of all levels. 
Modernization of the national educational system in Ukraine in the framework of 
the world mainstream is not possible without unified and well-defined terminological 
bases, methodological foundations, principles and criteria for comparative studies that 
meet the current level of the science development and the needs of society.
In order to carry out a comparative analysis of the development of special 
education teacher preparation systems in different countries, e.g. in the USA and 
Ukraine for the fulfillment of our research study, the following criteria were proposed 
and explained: 
1. Legal support of the educational system for individuals with special needs. 
Legislation in the USA and Ukraine represent different attitude towards individuals 
with disabilities. Despite the fact that Ukraine has a longer governmental history than 
the USA, since 1975, federal laws support the US special education system and 
guarantee individuals with disabilities with free appropriate public education in the 
least restrictive environment. Most Ukrainian laws instead of declaring people with 
disabilities a free access to education thus the needed level of quality for educational 
services and academic achievements is not mentioned.
The most striking marker of the pedagogical education development is the 
indicators of its development in the field of training for the special education system 
and inclusive educational institutions, the system of social rehabilitation of children 
and adults with disabilities. To cite this example, in 2001, the United States adopted 
the “No Child Left Behind Act” (2001), which assured that all students could meet a 
certain educational standard by introducing feasible goals. According to this law, 
special education students got an equal, fair and significant opportunity to obtain a 
high-quality education and had to follow the same educational standards to prove their 
academic achievements. This was a major impetus for providing access to the public 
school curriculum for all students with disabilities. The easiest way to achieve this was 
to intensify inclusive education.

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2. National and regional standards of special education teacher preparation 
are well-developed and permanently renewed in both countries. However, there are 
some differences in defining educational programs classification for special 
educators. While there are about 19 options of educational programs (13.1001-
13.1099) a prospective US special educator can choose from [2], the Ministry of 
Education and Science of Ukraine observes only 5 specializations for obtaining 
governmental funding: teaching students with hearing impairment; with vision 
impairments; with orthopedic impairments; with intellectual disabilities, and with 
speech or language impairments. According to Ukrainian approach, speech -
language pathologists belong to special education teachers’ professions, they 
evaluate the speaking abilities, develop and fulfill treatment and rehabilitative 
therapies, though in the US classification they belong to health professions category 
(51.203) [2].
The other feature worth mentioning is the absence of the Code of Professional 
Ethics for Special Educators approved in Ukraine. On the contrary, by providing the 
greatest possible assistance and support to teachers of children with special educational 
needs, both leading professional associations (the National Association of Special 
Education Teachers and the Council for Exceptional Children [3, p. 1]) help to raise 
standards of excellence and innovation in special education policy, teaching and 
research in order to improve the quality of educational services for students with 
special needs. Despite the different structures of the codes issued by them, the concept 
and key principles of ethical conduct for special educators do not contradict each other. 
These associations have developed ethics codes as well as standards of professional 
practice for special education teachers.
3. Curriculums, methods, and technologies for special education teachers’