COORDINATOR OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AS A CHALLENGE FOR UKRAINIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

Abstract

Education of children with special educational needs (SEN) in Ukraine continues to find the ways of its realization under the conditions of the deficit of different supportive factors, among them – provision of the specialists. There is no position in Ukrainian schools, which would deal with the issues of inclusive education on the competent basis. At the same time there are several similar positions in the US schools (special education teacher, case-manager) as well as there is a position, which is directly related to coordination activities – Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO). We believe that existence of the position of coordinator in the support team is one of the main conditions of coordinated work of the support team, which would provide continuity in the process of education, upbringing and socialization of the person with special educational needs. The article provides generalization of the main directions of activities of such a coordinator according to the professional profile and offers the assumption regarding the possible coordination role, which could be conducted by one of the members of the support team in Ukrainian schools. The article provides analysis of the existing legal and scientific-methodological materials, focused on the issue of the support team as well as the issue of coordinator of such a support. The lack of Ukrainian educators` awareness on the content of the team interactions and the role of the coordinator is defined, which became a condition to formulate a need to withdraw from the formalism and to look for the real coordinator, who would deal not only with the issues of learning of persons with special educational needs, but will be capable of introducing the culture of inclusive educational environment development, which would be barriers-free, supportive and developmental for all participants of educational process. In this process professional profile of Special Educational Needs Coordinator became the main guide regarding the defining process of the content of activities of this coordinator. According to this profile the specialist has to influence the school policy towards inclusive education, to assess the needs of children with SEN, to monitor their development, to train teachers and to coordinate their activities, and to support families of children with SEN. We analyzed how some of these coordinator`s functions can be realized in Ukraine, and we emphasized that these functions can be brought to life by other team members in the process of providing support to children with SEN. However, we hope that the special teacher – the new profession, which was introduced into Ukrainian classificatory of professions recently, would be the best option for this role.