Beliefs and Experiences of Serbian Preschool Educators on Inclusive Education

The purpose of this study is to examine a range of preschool educators’ experiences and beliefs regarding inclusive education in public preschool institutions in Serbia. The research aimed to: a) determine the relationship between educators’ self-assessed experience and competence, the availability of support systems, educators’ beliefs about the parents of children with developmental difficulties, and their beliefs about inclusion; b) identify significant predictors of the educators’ beliefs about the benefits of inclusion; c) explore whether nurses and preschool teachers differ in their experiences and beliefs. The sample consisted of 201 preschool educators: 145 preschool teachers and 56 nurses working with younger children. Principal Component Analysis with Oblimin rotation was employed, along with parallel analysis, which pointed to a four-factor structure: Teaching Experience and Competence, Availability of Expert Support, Negative Beliefs about Parents, and Inclusion Benefits. The results indicate that preschool educators report mildly positive experiences and beliefs about inclusive education, but they also hold a negative view of the parents of children with developmental difficulties. Negative beliefs about parents show the strongest (negative) correlation with beliefs in the benefits of inclusion and are the best predictor in the regression model, followed by self-assessed experience and competence and the participants’ occupation (i.e., nurse or preschool teacher). Preschool teachers report that they have more experience and competence in working with children with developmental difficulties than nurses do, while other differences were not significant. The implications of the obtained results are discussed.