Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education in Russia and Post-socialist Countries

The study is devoted to the study of inclusive education and is implemented by IL SIR in partnership with the 'Vykhod [Coming Out]' Foundation, the Association 'Autism-Regions', the NGO 'Perspektiva', the Institute for Inclusive Education of the MSPPU.

Inclusion today is understood as the process of full participation in public life, including education, of all people, regardless of physical, intellectual, social, mental, linguistic and other characteristics, therefore the questionnaire will be devoted not only to the inclusion of children with disabilities and/or special needs but also the inclusion of children with special cultural experiences and backgrounds.

The study analyzes the conditions in which inclusion is formed, as well as the factors that facilitate or hinder its formation. To form a holistic picture of the development of inclusive education, the main focus of the study is to study attitudes towards inclusion of different participants (teachers and parents) in the context of a wide range of conditions - social, organizational, cultural, psychological - in which they are formed. The three target groups of the survey are

1. teachers who work with children with special educational needs (SEN),
2. parents of children with SEN,
3. parents of other children who are the classmates of children with SEN.

The research is of an international nature. In addition to Russia, more than 10 countries take part in it: Armenia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Tajikistan and other countries. Conducting a survey in the post-Soviet countries will allow us to understand what conditions led to the fact that, leaving 30 years ago from one point, today we observe different pictures - in some countries, inclusion is developing more successfully than in others. In this regard, it becomes important to understand the particularities of the context that contribute to the transition to inclusion in the agenda of social policy and in the daily life of these countries.