Analysis of Tutor Training Programs for Inclusive Education

Abstract

The article is devoted to the current problem – the training of tutors for inclusive education. The high need for tutors and the specific communication with children with disabilities assumes the availability of affordable, high-quality training programs at different levels of education. The author analyzed the websites of 50 state universities with faculties of a psychological and pedagogical orientation, and (or) offering training programs for inclusive education, as well as 20 websites of additional education organizations offering advanced training and retraining courses, on the Internet, upon request for the training of tutors for inclusive education. Found curriculum programs were analyzed according to various criteria, including the compliance of the content of the program with the professional standard of the tutor and formed professional competencies. The analysis showed that the proposed training programs for tutors for inclusive education do not sufficiently develop the necessary professional competencies in accordance with the Professional Standard. This is also confirmed by the interviews of 30 already working tutors who were asked questions about their education and abilities to overcome the difficulties that arise in the process of accompanying students with disabilities. The author sees a way out of this situation in the creation of an accessible system for training tutors for inclusive education, based on expanding the number of programs for different levels of education and improving the quality of these programs through the development of courses that form the professional competencies of tutors that correspond to the Tutor's Professional Standard.