Perceptions of itinerant teachers on inclusive practices in Kosovo
This research aims to identify the perceptions of itinerant teachers on inclusive practices in Kosovo. Since the inclusion process faces numerous challenges and the provision of support by itinerant teachers to schools that include students with special educational needs is a practice that is being implemented in Kosovo, it is considered that itinerant teachers are the closest experts on the development of the inclusion process. Therefore, their perceptions can provide a fair reflection on the advantages and challenges in this process by identifying the needs for institutional interventions. The research has a qualitative approach, with descriptive, evaluative and exploratory methods. The research sample consists of 9 itinerant teachers from five Resource Centers for Learning and Counseling (RC) – from 2 to 3 RCs for children with intellectual disabilities, 1 RC for children with hearing disabilities and 2 itinerant teachers from RC for children with visual impairments. To carry out the research, a questionnaire was designed for interviewing the itinerant teachers – referring to the main question: what are the perceptions of the itinerant teachers about inclusion in Kosovo? The research results show that according to the perceptions of traveling teachers, inclusive practices in Kosovo are on an advancing trend, but there are still challenges that accompany this process across the entire educational institutional hierarchy. The significant differences between municipalities, especially between urban and rural areas, reflect a variety in the implementation of inclusion. Therefore, it is recommended to increase investments starting from raising awareness, material resources, professional resources, databases for children with special needs, as well as creating mechanisms for monitoring the process and holding relevant actors accountable.