The Attitudes of Teachers towards Disadvantaged Young Students: Israel–Romania Comparative Analysis
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Contextualization
3. Theoretical Framework
3.1. Attitude—Definition, Components
3.2. Disadvantaged Young Students
3.3. Educational Integration and Educational Inclusion
4. Materials and Methods
4.1. Methods
4.2. Sample Selection and Participants
4.3. Data Collection
4.4. Ethical Consideration
5. Results and Discussion
5.1. The Cognitive Component
5.2. The Affective Component
5.3. The Behavioral Component
6. Limitations
7. Conclusions and Implications for Practice
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
- The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Goal 4—Quality Education. Available online: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Goal-4.pdf (accessed on 6 April 2021).
- Boudon, R. L’inégalités de Chances. La Mobilité Sociale Dans les Sociétés Industrielles; Hachette: Paris, France, 1973. [Google Scholar]
- Bourdieu, P.; Passeron, J.C. Les Héritiers, les Étudiants et la Culture; Les Éditions de Minuit: Paris, France, 1964. [Google Scholar]
- Merle, P. Le concept de démocratisation de l’institution scolaire: Une typologie et sa mise à l’épreuve. Population 2000, 55, 15–50. Available online: https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/pop_0032-4663_2000_num_55_1_7096.pdf (accessed on 17 March 2020). [CrossRef]
- McLoyd, V. Socio-economic disadvantage and child development. Am. Psychol. 1998, 53, 185–204. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Veland, J.; Midthassel, U.V.; Idsoe, T. Perceived Socio-Economic Status and Social Inclusion in School: Interactions of Disadvantages. Scand. J. Educ. Res. 2009, 53, 515–531. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Dumay, X. Effet établissement: Effet de Composition et/ou Effet des Pratiques Managériales et Pédagogiques? Un état du Debat. Cahier de Recherche du GIRSEF, 2004, no. 34 November. Available online: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00603492/document (accessed on 20 March 2020).
- Duru-Bellat, M. Inégalites Sociale á l’École et Politiques Éducatives; UNESCO: Paris, France, 2003. [Google Scholar]
- Wiborg, S. Education and Social Integration: A comparative study of the comprehensive school system in Scandinavia. Lond. Rev. Educ. 2004, 7, 83–93. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Lundahl, L. Equality, inclusion and marketization of Nordic education: Introductory notes. Comp. Int. Educ. 2016, 11, 3–12. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Pilz, M. Modularisation of vocational training in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: Parallels and disparities in a modernisation process. J. Vocat. Educ. Train. 2012, 64, 169–183. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Graf, L. Skill Formation in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland in an Era of Europeanization. The Hybridization of Vocational Training and Higher Education in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, 1st ed.; Budrich UniPress Ltd.: Leverkusen-Opladen, Germany, 2013; pp. 1–305. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Radó, P.; Munkácsy, B.; Scharle, Á.; Kende, Á. Adapting to Future Challenges to Education Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia; CEU Center for Policy Studies: Budapest, Hungary, 2021. [Google Scholar]
- Ben-David, D.; Kimhi, A.S. Research Paper An Overview of Israel’s Education System and Its Impact; December 2017. Available online: https://shoresh.institute/archive.php?f=research-paper-eng-Ben-David-Kimhi-EducOverview.pdf (accessed on 14 June 2022).
- Shapiro, A. Everybody Belongs. Changing Negative Attitudes toward Classmates with Disabilities; Routledge Falmer: New York, NY, USA, 1999. [Google Scholar]
- Engelbrecht, P.; Savolainen, H.; Nel, M.; Malinen, O.P. How cultural histories shape South African and Finnish teachers’ attitudes towards, inclusive education: A comparative analysis. Eur. J. Spec. Needs Educ. 2013, 28, 305–318. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Arcavi, A.; Mandel-Levy, N. (Eds.) Education for All and for Each and Every One in the Israeli Education System; The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Jerusalem, Israeli, 2014. [Google Scholar]
- Kitchen, H.E.; Fordham, K.; Henderson, A.; Looney, A.; Maghnouj, S. Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education Romania, OECD, 2017. Available online: https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/romania-2017_9789264274051-en#page1 (accessed on 20 October 2019).
- Galović, D.; Brojčin, B.; Glumbić, N. The attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education in Vojvodina. Int. J. Incl. Educ. 2014, 18, 1262–1282. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Cacioppo, J.T.; Petty, R.E. The need for cognition. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 1982, 42, 116–131. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Eagly, A.H.; Chaiken, S. The Psychology of Attitudes; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich: Fort Worth, TX, USA, 1993. [Google Scholar]
- Ermisch, J.; Jantti, M.; Smeeding, T. From Parents to Children: The Intergenerational Transmission of Advantage; Russell Sage Foundation: New York, NY, USA, 2012. [Google Scholar]
- Letourneau, N.L.; Duffett-Legerm, L.; Levacm, L.; Watsonm, B.; Young-Morris, C. Socioeconomic Status and Child Development: A Meta-Analysis. J. Emot. Behav. Disord. 2013, 21, 211–224. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Moore, L.J.; Samuel, J.V.; Mark, R.W.; Freeman, P. The effect of challenge and threat states on performance: An examination of potential mechanisms. Psychophysiology 2012, 49, 1417–1425. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Bernstein, B. Social Class, Linguistic Codes and Grammatical Elements. Lang. Speech 1962, 5, 221–240. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Louvet, E. Social judgment toward job applicants with disabilities: Perception of personal qualities and competencies. Rehabil. Psychol. 2007, 52, 297–303. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Adley, N.; Kina, V.J. Getting behind the closed door of care leavers: Understanding the role of emotional support for young people leaving care. Child Fam. Soc. Work. 2017, 22, 97–105. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Salazar, A.M.; Keller, T.E.; Courtney, M.E. Understanding Social Support’s Role in the Relationship Between Maltreatment and Depression in Youth with Foster Care Experience. Child Maltreatment 2011, 16, 102–113. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Höjer, I.; Sjöblom, Y. Voices of 65 Young People Leaving Care in Sweden: “There Is So Much I Need to Know!”. Aust. Soc. Work. 2014, 67, 67–71. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Maroy, C. Les évolutions du Travail Enseignant en Europe. Facteurs de Changement, Incidences et Résistences. Cahier de Recherche du GIRSEF. 2005. no. 42, Juillet. Available online: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00603481/document (accessed on 12 September 2020).
- Lee, J.; Davies, J.D. Bereavement and Loss: The Emotional Consequences of Special Measures for a Sample of Special Schools. Improv. Sch. 2000, 3, 44–50. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Stainback, W.; Stainback, S. Support Networks for Inclusive Schooling: Interdependent Integrated Education; Brookes: Baltimore, MD, USA, 1990. [Google Scholar]
- Salend, S.J. Creating Inclusive Classrooms: Effective and Reflective Practices; Merrill Prentice-Hall: Colombus, OH, USA, 2001. [Google Scholar]
- Barton, L. The politics of education for all. Support Learn. 1995, 10, 156–160. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Unterhalter, E.; Brighouse, H. Distribution of What for Social Justice in Education? The Case of Education for All by 2015. In Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and Social Justice in Education; Walker, M., Unterhalter, E., Eds.; Palgrave Macmillan: New York, NY, USA, 2007. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Øen, K.; Krumsvik, R.J. Teachers’ Attitudes Incl. Regarding Challenging Behavior. Eur. J. Spec. Needs Educ. 2022, 37, 417–431. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Razer, M.; Victor, J.; Friedman, M.V. From Exclusion to Excellence: Building Restorative Relationships to Create Inclusive Schools; Sense Publications: Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2017; p. 159. [Google Scholar]
- McIntire, S.A.; Miller, L.A. Fundamentele Testării Psihologice. O Abordare Practică; Editura Polirom: Iaşi, Romanian, 2010. [Google Scholar]
- Lalvani, P. Privilege, compromise, or social justice: Teachers’ conceptualizations of inclusive education. Disabil. Soc. 2013, 28, 14–27. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- McKay, L. Beginning teachers and inclusive education: Frustrations, dilemmas and growth. Int. J. Incl. Educ. 2016, 20, 383–396. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Krippendorff, K. Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology, 2nd ed.; Sage Publications: London, UK, 2004. [Google Scholar]
- Vicsek, L. Issues in the analysis of focus groups: Generalisability, quantifiability, treatment of context and quotations. Qual. Rep. 2010, 15, 122–141. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Schwarz, N.; Bohner, G. The Construction of Attitudes. In Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology; Tesser, A., Schwarz, N., Eds.; Intraindividual Processes; Blackwell: Oxford, UK, 2001; Volume 1, pp. 436–457. [Google Scholar]
- Wilson, T.D.; Hodges, S.D. Attitudes as Temporary Constructions. In The Construction of Social Judgments; Martin, L.L., Tesser, A., Eds.; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc: New York, NY, USA, 1992; pp. 37–65. [Google Scholar]
- Bar-Haim, E.; Semyonov, M. Ethnic Stratification in Israel, in The International Handbook of the Demography of Race and Ethnicity; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2015; pp. 323–337. [Google Scholar]
- Friedlander, D.; Okun, B.S.; Goldscheider, C. Ethno-Religious Hierarchy in Educational Achievement and Socioeconomic Status in Israel: A Historical Perspective. In Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel; Khattab, N., Miaari, S., Stier, H., Eds.; Palgrave Macmillan: New York, NY, USA, 2016. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ingamells, S.; Goodwin, A.M.; John, C. The influence of psychiatric hospitals and community residence labels on a social rejection of the mentally ill. Br. J. Clin. Psychol. 1996, 35, 359–367. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Van Mieghem, A.; Verschueren, K.; Petry, K.; Struyf, E. An analysis of research on inclusive education: A systematic search and meta review. Int. J. Incl. Educ. 2020, 24, 675–689. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- You, S.; Kim, E.K.; Shin, K. Teachers’ belief and efficacy toward inclusive education in early childhood settings in Korea. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1489. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Pijl, S.J. Preparing teachers for inclusive education: Some reflections from the Netherlands. J. Res. Spec. Educ. Needs 2010, 10, 197–201. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ru-De Liu, R.D.; Zhen, R.; Ding, Y.; Liu, Y.; Wang, J.; Jiang, R.; Xu, L. Teacher support and math engagement: Roles of academic self-efficacy and positive emotions. Educ. Psychol. 2018, 38, 3–16. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Morissette, D.; Gingras, M. Enseigner Des Attitudes? Planifier, Intervenir, Évalue; De Boeck-Wesmael: Burxelles, Belgium, 1989. [Google Scholar]
- Pianta, R.C.; La Paro, K.M.; Payne, C.; Cox, M.J.; Bradley, R. The relation of kindergarten classroom environment to teacher, family, and school characteristics and child outcomes. Elem. Sch. J. 2002, 102, 225–238. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gherguț, A. Psihopedagogia Persoanelor cu Cerințe Speciale: Strategii de Educație Integrată; Editura Polirom: Iași, Romania, 2001. [Google Scholar]
- Martineau, S.; Gauthier, C.; Desbiens, J.F. La gestion de classe au coeur de l’éffet enseignant. Revue des Sci. de L’éducation 1999, XXV, 467–496. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Hassanein, E.E.; Alshaboul, Y.M.; Ibrahim, S. The impact of teacher preparation on preservice teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education in Qatar. Heliyon 2021, 7, e07925. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Sub-Themes | Country | Statements |
---|---|---|
Socioeconomic characteristics | IL | “Students who are delinquents or have links to crime families or criminals. So, these students whom I have experienced and found difficult…but I am referring to the extreme of the extreme” “I think there is no [possibility] of preventing it [exclusion of students], the opposite, as if we constantly exclude, all the time I exclude populations. If I have an Arab student in school and we only speak Hebrew and she does not understand everything and I don’t always have the time to check whether she understood—I have excluded her from what we are doing. If I have Russian students and I don’t have the time to delay and see if they have understood—I have excluded them. And the more difficult language is for them, it is more difficult when we teach holidays and customs… when I talk to them, I put them aside all the time without realizing that I am not strengthening them, not validating who they are, where they come from and this is actually exclusion. I don’t intend to, but I am at a public school… and this is the norm”. |
RO | “There are many situations that can describe the vulnerability of young people: low education of parents, limited access to quality social assistance services, and after-school services.” ”Students who are forced to work not only to support themselves but also their family and there is a risk of dropping out of school ... repeat the year” | |
Psycho-intellectual characteristics | IL | ”I teach in emotional-mental classes, and it works [their integration in regular classes], but it requires a whole lot of mediation. With parents and staff and kids and constantly mediating situations. And strengthening relationships ... and forming friendships and creating a comfortable place for them in school” |
RO | ”I work in an inclusive school—the students we have are also among those with SEN—and I think they are the ones who can be considered disadvantaged even if we don’t see them that way” | |
Training | IL | “I want to say something about practical training, even if there was something that contributed to the experiences, it was not something built into teaching practice, in the training program as it was built. In other words, if there was anything I learned and benefited from experiencing such populations, it was just a coincidence. Created in the classroom I watched, and watched the teacher deal with the situation. But no—they did not direct us to such a thing. And I did not get this knowledge from school. When I came and asked and tried to understand the difficulties and dealing with students, there was even a class with emotional disorders. “I could not understand. I do not know how to deal with them, with their behaviors. No, I could not.” |
RO | ”The internship I did in college helped me a lot. I went through all kinds of activities: and as a philologist at the booths, I also wanted the activity in the classroom and in the penitentiary ... and so I managed to decide what I want to do after graduating. I don’t know if I still do that today.” ”The young colleagues come totally unprepared for what awaits them: students, teachers, parents ... And they are not helped either. According to the legislation, there is a mentoring teacher who has to help his young teachers, without experience, but it is a job in which you have to do a lot of documents ... paperwork. You don’t have time to teach him something practical because you have to fill in all kinds of documents.” |
Sub-Themes | Country | Statements |
---|---|---|
Feelings (towards DYS and their families; towards the education system and policy makers) | IL | “I feel that children who are less involved, children who are weak will find it difficult to push themselves and if parents do not help, it is even more difficult and also much more difficult to open one’s heart and establish contact when communicating with parents is not good generally, to create something to support a child, to create some sort of helping front. So, if parents also cannot support [a child] themselves and it is also hard for them to establish good contact with a school, I think it will be very difficult to hold onto a child as if to lift such a child or support him” |
“I find it difficult to work with the populations I mentioned [at-risk students, behavior problems, social and geographical peripheries], I admit it and I avoid it … I will not go to schools in such areas” | ||
“They (DYS) are delinquent, theyare a delinquent population, they have delinquent speech, delinquent behavior, it’s difficult for me... it scares me... I’m afraid...” “I don’t know how it is in regular classes, but I know that in special education classes they really struggle to accept every child because they are children who have been ‘ejected’ from all sorts of systems, from all sorts of frameworks and if they are not at our school, then they are simply on the streets, so they try very, very hard to accept these children and meet their needs and fight for every child. And also, children, simply had their needs met during the Corona period, those they knew were alone at home, who had no support and would not learn, they were allocated an assistant to be with them and help them. Although they are not considered education or, really everything they could. It was very important for them” | ||
RO | ”Sometimes parents compensate for the shortcomings they have faced themselves, they give their children a lot ... they exaggerate ... They send them to school with a lot of money, they dress them according to the latest fashion ... but not all children have these possibilities and those who have humiliated those who do not. This is about the education that children receive in the family.” | |
Communication skills | IL | “They find friends similar to them and then they become a small group” |
RO | ”The most difficult thing is to work and communicate with young people who have psycho-intellectual problems and their parents do not accept this. You as a teacher cannot help him if the parent does not recognize: you cannot make a curriculum adapted to the newcomers, you cannot evaluate him so as to respect his requirements ... And the hardest thing is for the parent to recognize the fact that he has a child with special needs” |
Sub-Themes | Country | Statements |
---|---|---|
Classroom management, commitment management | IL | “I went in and tried to conduct a lesson and didn’t succeed, no way. Later I sort of developed methods, but it is not something I achieve through education [studies]” |
RO | “No one teaches you how to organize yourself, how to interact with these students. You learn on the go, you adapt according to the situation. Talk more with your colleagues.” | |
Pedagogical methods and techniques | IL | “I want to say something about practical training, even if there was something that contributed to the experiences, it was not something built into teaching practice, in the training program as it was built. In other words, if there was anything I learned and benefited from experiencing such populations, it was just a coincidence. Created in the classroom I watched, and watched the teacher deal with the situation. But no—they did not direct us to such a thing. And I did not get this knowledge from school. When I came and asked and tried to understand the difficulties and dealing with students, there was even a class with emotional disorders. “I could not understand. I do not know how to deal with them, with their behaviors. No, I could not.” |
RO | ”It is very important to involve all students in the activity. I witnessed classes in which the teachers did not work with some students. They were there, he had forgotten them...they were given something to draw or copy a text...And I asked: can this student do that or do they not want to work with him?” | |
Collaboration between teachers, between teachers and DYS, and with other categories of specialists (psychologists, school counselors, speech therapists, etc.) | IL | “I remember when I was doing teaching practice during my studies at such a last chance school, where they did amazing work, amazing with the children—at-risk children… and I remember how impressed I was with the whole process there. And I said to myself, this would never happen in a regular school as if no framework could give them what they received at that place” “I want to admit and say that I do, I do give up on children whose parents ah, whom I tried to involve and they were not, they were not involved.” |
RO | ”You know the situation in Romania: school counselors and psychologists are very few and they run from one school to another... they don’t have time to get to know the student, to help the teachers, to establish an appropriate curriculum together with him, to talk with the parents.. very difficult. Each teacher copes as he can and as he knows best.” |
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Levi-Sudai, P.; Neagu, G. The Attitudes of Teachers towards Disadvantaged Young Students: Israel–Romania Comparative Analysis. Sustainability 2022, 14, 12468. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912468
Levi-Sudai P, Neagu G. The Attitudes of Teachers towards Disadvantaged Young Students: Israel–Romania Comparative Analysis. Sustainability. 2022; 14(19):12468. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912468
Chicago/Turabian StyleLevi-Sudai, Pazit, and Gabriela Neagu. 2022. "The Attitudes of Teachers towards Disadvantaged Young Students: Israel–Romania Comparative Analysis" Sustainability 14, no. 19: 12468. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912468