Opinions of Special Education Teachers on Increasing Opportunities in the Education of Students with Special Needs

This research aims to reveal the opinions and suggestions of special education teachers regarding increasing opportunities in the education of students with special needs. The research was conducted based on the qualitative research method and phenomenology pattern. The research was conducted with 20 special education teachers working in 13 different special education institutions in Van province. The study group of the research was determined using criterion sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods. Research data was collected through a semi-structured interview form using the interview technique, which is one of the qualitative research data collection techniques. The research data were subjected to descriptive analysis. In the research, different findings were reached, such as increasing the opportunities in the education of students with special needs, eliminating the injustice that students are exposed to, providing the necessary support in inclusive education environments for students with special needs to ensure equality of opportunity, preventing students with special needs from being placed in an unfair competition environment, and educational environments with inequality of opportunity should be more inclusive. The research concluded that students with special needs should be provided with the necessary support in inclusive educational environments in order to increase the opportunities in the education of students with special needs, to eliminate the injustice that students are exposed to, and to ensure equality of opportunity. In the study, suggestions were presented to increase the opportunities in the education of students with special needs, such as allocating more resources in educational environments and providing easier access to materials and resources appropriate to their needs, diversifying educational materials, and strengthening support services throughout the school to meet the social and emotional needs of students.