Seminar in Inclusive Education

As part of its cooperation with V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, the Department of Pedagogics & Social Work of Astrakhan State University held the National Scientific Workshop “Designing of Inclusive Educational Space: Issues & Prospects”.

Faculty staff and students of Astrakhan’s educational institutions, Adygea State University (Maykop, Russia), V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, as well as teachers of general and special (correctional) educational establishments took part in the event.

The workshop was held in the interactive mode. It was moderated by Prof. Galina Palatkina, Dean of the Department of Pedagogics & Social Work of ASU; her searching questions and pointed comments were a good motivator for productive work and a vivid discussion.

The discussion concerned one of the key issues of inclusive education – barrier-free environment. Prof. Palatkina set the question whether students with special needs should get used to the university educational environment or whether the environment ought to be adapted to such students’ needs in advance. Summing up the discussion, the moderator concluded that there is only one worthy solution to this problem: the environment must be accessible for any student with special needs, as well as for any other student, i.e. it must provide access for everyone and anyone.

Besides barrier-free environment, a number of other issues was under consideration: various legal and profession-orienting aspects of activities aimed at prospective students, employment of graduates with special needs and their psychological and pedagogical support, as well as support of teachers involved in inclusive education.

The workshop agenda included not just research and methodical issues. Our students demonstrated the role of social and cultural activities in establishing inclusive space, as well as nontraditional means to unite people with different abilities to create the society of inclusive culture. They performed a fragment of the poem “The Gypsies” by Alexander Pushkin and provided it with a translation of the sounding speech by means of the finger language for the deaf.

The outcomes of the event were summarized at its end. An essential result of the workshop was a large-scale discussion of acute issues of inclusive higher education and sharing the gained experience between higher and secondary educational institutions.

According to Prof. Palatkina, nowadays any university ought to become some kind of a trainer that models the mechanisms of social integration of individuals with special needs. Afterwards, our students will introduce those mechanisms in the public sphere outside the university at various educational institutions.