Views of headmasters towards special education teachers

Inclusion of children with special needs in regular primary schools is rising every year. The need of correct staff is rising with it. In most cases, schools employ a special education teacher, which is one of the staff, specifically trained to work with children who have special educational needs. Special education teachers in primary schools may work as part of schools advisory service unit. Apart from that, they can also work in mobile special education units. The headmaster, as a leader of the school, is responsible for efficient running of the school and the well-being of its employees. Both, the headmasters view of children with special needs and inclusive education, as well as his relationship with the staff, who work closely with these children, are important. Special education teachers have the task of presenting the childs special needs and strenghts to the rest of the school staff. They must present to them how to best work with each child. The headmasters understanding and support are of utmost importance. In this thesis, we present the views of primary school headmasters in Slovenia towards special education teachers. We tried to establish, how much do headmasters know about the work of special education teachers. We also compared this to their perception of the mobile special needs education unit, where the special education teachers are usually pressent at the school for less amounts of time. 57 headmasters of Slovenian primary schools participated in the research. Basic facts analysis was done in the statistical program SPSS. We found out that the headmasters know the nature of work and tasks of special education teachers and that they try to encourage and support them. They are aware of the importance of teamwork between regular teachers and special education teachers. The headmasters confirmed that the teachers in their schools are generally very satisfied with the work of special education teachers. They marked their role in establishing these relationships as important. The headmasters also expressed satisfaction with the work of mobile special education unit teachers, who work in their schools and confirmed that they wish to cooperate with them further. The headmasters were very understanding of logistic and work coordination problems the teachers in mobile units might face. In summary, they consider their knowledge of special education teachers and their work to be adequate