High-Quality Inclusion in Preschool Settings: A Survey of Early Childhood Personnel

Abstract

We utilized a survey to explore how early childhood personnel delivered high-quality and inclusive preschool special education and related services to young children with disabilities in one Western state. We conducted quantitative analyses on 418 participants’ survey responses, including t-tests and Mann Whitney tests to examine differences in the use of high-quality inclusion practices between early childhood special educators (ECSEs) ( n = 209) and related service personnel (RSP) ( n = 209). Findings indicated that ECSEs were more likely than RSP to implement high-quality inclusion practices. All personnel reported inconsistent use of teaming practices. Services were provided most often inside the classroom with peers; however, several personnel provided support to children inside their classroom but in a separate space or outside of their classroom. We discuss findings in the context of ways in which early childhood personnel can be supported to use high-quality inclusion practices.

The use of theory of planned behavior to systemically study the integrative-qualitative intentional behavior in Romanian preschool education with network analysis

“…Several scales for measuring the degree of quality and inclusiveness in early childhood education have been reported ( Soukakou, 2012 ; Ishimine and Tayler, 2014 ; Soukakou et al, 2018 ; Steed et al, 2022 ), but none approached the assessment under the theory of planned behavior framework.…”