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Mapping the Field of Teachers’ Multicultural Special Education in Greece: A New Era Emerges

By Nektaria Palaiologou.

Published by The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations

In this paper are presented some results of a study which aimed to explore future teachers’ views about the content of the broad term “inclusion” as far as two different special groups of the school population are concerned: a) pupils with special needs and b) migrant/foreign pupils. The sample of the study consisted of 40 (N) students from three different Departments of the University of Thessaly in Greece, i.e. the Department of Special Education, the Department of Primary Education and the Department of Pre-School Education. The method of the semi-structured type of interview was followed.
The study and its sample form part of a broader study which was conducted to a sample of 650 (N) students/future teachers. The general purpose of the broader study was to explore future teachers’ teaching competence on multicultural special issues and depict their needs in the field of “Multicultural Special Education”. The results are of great interest as they are indicative of students’ lack of knowledge about the educational provisions, policies, teaching methods that are needed for the two aforementioned special groups of pupils. The results also reflect students’/future teachers’ hesitance and fears towards teaching either pupils with special needs or pupils with a different ethno-cultural background. Finally, they are in accordance with a few studies in other countries highlighting the importance for enriching curricula of teachers’ education with practices and components for multicultural special teachers’ preparation.
In the final section of the paper, a general discussion takes place, based on a synthesis of important statements of pioneers in the field of Inter/Multicultural Education, Multicultural Special Education and provides useful insight for a reconstruction, reform both to pre-service and to in-service Teachers’ Education curricula and programs on an intercultural basis.

The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, Volume 8, Issue 6, pp.179-194. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic (PDF File; 647.616KB).

Dr. Nektaria Palaiologou

Lecturer, Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Western Macedonia, Florina, Greece