Pupils' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with special needs in lower primary school

Većina osoba s teškoćama suočava se s nejednakostima i diskriminacijom u zdravstvu, prijevozu, zapošljavanju, ali i u drugim sferama ljudskoga života kao što je i odgoj i obrazovanje. Kako bi se učenicima s teškoćama u razvoju osiguralo ostvarenje svih prava što se tiče odgoja i obrazovanja, predstavljena je inkluzija kao alat za uključivanje takvih učenika u društveni život i školsko okruženje. Negativni stavovi prema inkluziji učenika s teškoćama u razvoju, ali i generalno prema takvim učenicima, predstavljaju jednu od glavnih prepreka k njenom ostvarenju. Rad se bavi analizom stavova učenika nižih razreda osnovne škole prema inkluziji učenika s teškoćama u razvoju. Uzorak je sačinjavalo 43 ispitanika, 21 ispitanik iz 3.a i 22 ispitanika iz 3.b razreda jedne slavonske osnovne škole. Nakon provedene sociometrijske tehnike radi mjerenja položaja učenika s teškoćama u razvoju u grupi, analizirani su stavovi učenika s obzirom na kognitivne, emocionalne i konativne komponente. Kognitivne komponente sadržavale su saznanja o učenicima s teškoćama u razvoju, kao i o njihovim inkluzivnim potrebama, emocionalne komponente osjećaje ili afekte koji su u svezi s tim učenicima, a konativne komponente odnosile su se na spremnost ponašati se prema takvim učenicima u skladu s vlastitim stavom. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da su stavovi učenika razredne nastave o inkluziji učenika s teškoćama u razvoju pozitivni i ne razlikuju se mnogo od stavova samih učenika s teškoćama, čiji je sociometrijski status u oba razreda relativno povoljan, ali ne i idealan, i ne odstupa mnogo od sociometrijskog statusa drugih učenika.The majority of people with disabilities are faced with inequalities and discrimination in healthcare, transport, employment, but also in other areas of human life such as education. In order to ensure realisation of all rights of people with developmental difficulties in terms of education, inclusion is presented as a tool for including such students into the social life and school environment. Negative attitudes towards the inclusion of pupils with disabilities and generally towards pupils with disabilities, are one of the main obstacles to its achievement. This study deals with the analysis of primary school pupils’ attitudes towards the inclusion of pupils with developmental difficulties. The sample consisted of 43 respondents from two 3rd grades of a Slavonian lower primary school (21 respondents from 3.a and 22 respondents from 3.b). After the sociometric survey had been conducted in order to measure status of students with disabilities in the group, students' attitudes were analyzed with regard to the cognitive, affective and conative components. Cognitive component includes pupils’ knowledge of children with special needs, as well as their inclusive needs, affective component includes feelings or impacts associated with these children, and the conative component is related to pupils’ readiness to behave towards such children in accordance with their own attitude. The results have shown that the pupils’ attitudes towards the inclusion of children with disabilities are positive and do not differ much from attitudes of children with disabilities, whose sociometric status in both grades, according to research, is relatively favourable, but not ideal, and does not deviate from the sociometric status of other pupils