KLEIN V., SILONOVA V. - Attitudes of teaching staff towards the work of kindergarten school support teams in Slovakia

The research focuses on exploring the views of kindergarten teaching staff on inclusive education, with an emphasis on the position and roles of school support team members. It explores the views and attitudes of kindergarten principals, teachers and teaching assistants towards the professions of school special educator and teaching assistant and their practice at the pre-primary level of the school  system. A self-constructed questionnaire was used, which was completed by a total of 394 respondents from 142 kindergartens. The authors confirmed that an essential and extremely important determinant of an inclusive way of educating preschool children is the effective work of the members of school support teams, especially school special educators and pedagogical assistants, not only towards children with special educational needs, but also in the upbringing and education of intact children.

Keywords: Inclusive education. Pre-primary education. Kindergarten. School support team. School special educator. Teaching assistant.