The situation of classroom teachers' having problem in inclusive education and benefit from guidance and research centers

The aim of this research is to determine the situation of classroom teachers having problems in the inclusive education process and benefiting from Guidance and Research Centers. A mixed-method design was preferred in the research. The study group of the research consists of classroom teachers who had or currently have inclusive students in their class in Kastamonu in the 2019-2020 academic year, and GRC personnel working at Kastamonu Guidance and Research Center. In the research, as a quantitative data source, "Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale Revised" (SACIE-R) was used. The scale was applied to 67 classroom teachers. In the qualitative aspect of the research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine classroom teachers and five GRC staff in order to get the opinions of classroom teachers and GRC staff on inclusive education. As a result of the research, no significant difference was found in the level of feelings, attitudes, and concerns towards inclusive education according to the seniority and gender variables of the classroom teachers. Classroom teachers think that both students and teachers experience problems in inclusive education at first. While some of the teachers stated that these problems disappeared or decreased over time, some of them stated that the problems continued. Teachers who had problems with inclusive education stated that they felt helpless due to a lack of knowledge and that they tried to solve the problems with their own efforts. It was observed that the relationship between teachers and GRC was weak. A small number of teachers stated that they requested support from the GRC regarding inclusive education. Teachers want to receive more support from GRC, want GRC to visit schools, and be informed through in-service training and seminars. It has been stated by the majority of GRC staff that there may be a margin of error in diagnosing individuals with special needs and that the students receiving inclusive education are far from benefiting from the currently applied inclusive education. There were suggestions for GRC staff to address the problems of mainstreaming education, such as having a special education teacher in every school, opening support education rooms, and supporting teachers and GRC staff with in-service training. It was stated by the GRC staff that few and generally young teachers requested support from the GRC. It was stated that the support requests of the teachers were definitely responded to, and unless there was a support request, they could not attend school visits due to reasons such as lack of GRC staff and transportation problems.