Pedagogical Management in Inclusive Process of the Educational Institution

Introduction

Modern challenges of globalization, democratization and technology development determine new requirements for the management of educational institutions. The problem of management of educational innovations, attraction of investments and increasing of indicators of activity of establishment, in particular in the field of providing quality services is actualized. Mostly it concerns inclusive education institutions.

Challenges in the implementation of inclusive education in many countries are due to several reasons. First, they involve the training of qualified personnel capable of successful implementation of inclusive education. Special training of future teachers-managers of education and retraining of already working experts with pupils with special needs is necessary. Secondly, a significant part of education managers and teachers are not properly motivated for such work, and this is a set of motives adequate to the goals and objectives of inclusive education and development. Third, the lack of quality educational programs that provide an individual approach to people with disabilities, as well as modern methodological, information and communication support. Fourth, psychological comfort in the environment of the educational institution, i.e. the appropriate psychological adjustment of healthy students and their parents to study together with those children who are slightly behind in their development. Finally, the adaptation of educational facilities (secondary schools, higher education institutions) to the admission of pupils / students with special needs who need special means for their mobility. These and other problems are related to inclusive education management.

The problem of effective management of an inclusive institution is especially relevant for post-Soviet countries, including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Belarus and others. This is primarily because these countries only in the 2000s started the intensive introduction of inclusive education to institutions of various types, thus the improvement of regulatory, organizational, methodological support is on time. At the same time, the requirements to the education manager, performing mostly organizational functions, are increasing, “people still see a manager, above all, as an organizer of the system, a vertical hierarchy” (Moldazhanova, Toleubekova, Zhumataeva & Sarzhanova, 2018, p. 17). Global trends of democratization in governance necessitate the creation of a new model of the head of the inclusive education institution, primarily creation of psychological comfort and informal communication with all participants of the educational process (staff, students, parents, etc.). Heads of educational institutions who initiate the development, experiment, testing, implementation or application of pedagogical innovations in inclusive education, above all, must tolerate humanism in professional interaction.

The aim of this article is to substantiate the requirements to the head of an inclusive education institution in the context of modern realities, to analyze his/her professional profile in the context of educational innovation management, to present the results of an experimental study of the development of education manager’s inclusive competence, the cognitive-activity and analytical-performance components of readiness to solve professional practical tasks.

Research methods

The subject-target method was used to analyze modern scientific sources on the problem of pedagogical management in an inclusive education institution, substantiate the content of inclusive competence in management, design a professional profile of the head and determine strategies for effective educational management in an inclusive environment.

To identify the level of inclusive management competence of heads of educational institutions of different types (secondary schools, lyceums and colleges), empirical methods were used – surveys, pedagogical observation.

Methods of mathematical statistics are used for quantitative and qualitative presentation of research results.

Theoretical Framework

Educational management at the international level is largely democratized; some principles and priorities are changing. For example, M. Spendlove (2007) conducted a survey in the UK among university vice-chancellors and found that important values of the head are academic credibility and experience of university life. A prominent place also belongs to communicate and negotiate skills, the ability to listen and understand others. It is no coincidence that today we are talking about the idea of “new management culture”, which requires the presence of entrepreneurial, managerial and leadership qualities (Spendlove, 2007). In the course of our study, important are the issues of the model of leadership in education to optimize the educational process of people with disabilities, the role of the leader in ensuring the coordinated activities of all teaching staff (Hoekstra & Newton, 2017).

The study focuses on the fact that pedagogical management in an inclusive education institution requires the appropriate level of inclusive management competence. The concept of “inclusive competence” is a component of the professional competence of the head of the educational institution. It includes a system of knowledge, skills, and values of participants of the inclusive process of various nosologies and is expressed in the ability to perform professional functions taking into account special needs of children and youth with disabilities, ensure their inclusion in the environment of the educational institution, creating conditions for their development and self-development (Chaikovskyi, 2012, p. 20).

The level of the manager’s inclusive competence influences the results of implementation of inclusion in the institution as a whole. After all, teachers will be able to realize their professional potential fully and increase the level of inclusive competence in the educational environment, provided the school administration create comfortable conditions for self-improvement with tolerant cooperation. At the same time, teachers should have a choice of methods and forms of work with students with special needs, systematically discuss positive and negative aspects of inclusion, difficulties of its implementation, and together overcome problems if they appear. Without proper cooperation of the teaching staff, which, of course, is created by the head, neither teachers nor educational institutions can achieve progress on this path.

One aspect of the inclusive competence of a leader as a successful manager is the overall strategy of his/her activity to ensure universal design in education (Alves, Ribeiro & Simões, 2013). This means designing an educational environment, communication, information technology or services that are equally accessible and understandable to all participants of the educational process, including people with disabilities (Oliveira, Munster & Gonçalves, 2019). These include adaptation of programs, curriculum, assessment of knowledge, teaching, library arrangement, sports grounds, dormitories, websites, instructions, etc. An integral part of this process is to identify ways to reform the general education management of people with disabilities.

Thus, inclusive competence is an integral professional competence of heads of educational institutions.

A manager in the field of education is an employee professionally exercising the functions of managing education based on modern management methods. There are three groups (levels) of education managers. The first group (the highest level) is the administrative staff of educational institutions and educational authorities; the second group (the middle level) consists of heads of methodological, legal, financial, economic and other services of the education system; the third group are teachers as the organizers of the management of learners' educational activities (Moldazhanova et al., 2018, p. 17).

The study considers inclusive educational management at all the above levels. After all, only pedagogical partnership and cooperation at “horizontal” and “vertical” levels makes it possible to achieve success.

One of the most important elements for improving school management of inclusive education are information resources (Abello-Romero, Mancilla, Ganga-Contreras & Estay-Sepúlveda, 2019).

Speaking of informatization of education usually involve methods and technologies. Equally important is the content of information to be stored and processed in information systems. Any management is based on information about the status of the management object. The axiom is the impossibility of effective management without understanding the state of this object, the ability to track the results of management influences, to monitor the approach (or distance) of the object from the desired state, and so on (Bakhrushyn, 2015).

Effective inclusive management depends on completeness and accuracy of the information perceived by persons with disabilities in an educational institution. The most important information about an educational institution creates its positive image, and thus stimulating demands to educational services.

The modern direction of development of management science is the management of educational innovations, which reveals the impact of investment and innovation on the development of human, material and financial resources in educational institutions for improving the quality of basic indicators of their activities (Danylenko, 2007). The head of the educational institution is required today “required to be personally, philosophically and ontologically at ease with simultaneous educational-commercial discourses”, they “have to respond not only to the needs of educational stakeholders but also to the commercial demands”  (Machin, 2014).

Results and Discussion

Pedagogical inclusive management of an educational institution is considered its head’s innovative activity, as one of the important tasks is providing equal conditions for learning and development of students with different special needs. The search for such conditions for the proper organization of educational process requires specific competencies, innovation, especially in the management area.

The system of innovation management to ensure effective management of higher education institutions includes: 1) educational innovations (including the provision of the educational process with the latest information and methodological technologies); 2) management innovations (e.g., forming innovative structure of higher education institutions, improving the quality and management of higher education institutions); 3) ideological innovations (ensuring the participation of higher education institutions in various international and national research and educational programs and projects, etc.) (Machin, 2014).

Management of inclusive education institution from the perspective of application innovation is affected by the impact of its operations; the level of qualification and professional activity of the staff; the success of candidates in their training activities; the level of providing the institution with resources; innovative potential of the educational institution; level of automation and technologicalization of the educational process (Trubitsyna & Demchenko, 2020, p. 390-391). Regarding inclusiveness, it is important to ensure a universal educational design of the institution taking into account methodological features of training people with disabilities, providing them with psychological and pedagogical support.

To achieve great results, it is important for a manager to demonstrate the qualities of a democratic leader, the management system itself must also be democratic. This study helped us to compile a professional profile, a psychological portrait of a pedagogical leader, head of an educational institution.

The professional profile of the education manager is interpreted as the ideal model of the educator, the role model, the standard possessing basic personality qualities; knowledge, abilities, skills necessary to perform educational functions (Kolupaieva, 2009); model of professionally significant personal qualities and skills (Shved, 2015). The model of a manager with professional readiness to work in an inclusive education is presented in Fig. 1. It should be noted that the professional profile of a leader working in an inclusive environment contains the following components: social and professional role of the manager; professional and pedagogical competence; inclusive competence; pedagogical technique; personal and professional qualities, etc.

Figure 1. Profile of an education manager of integrated / inclusive education.

Thus, success of an inclusive education manager depends on the level of his/her managerial competence, experience. It includes: the ability to determine prospects for the development of an inclusive educational institution; ability to choose the best management, as well as capability of the institution to provide quality educational services to students with disabilities; ability to distribute work and tasks properly, choose optimal equipment and tools, manage different education situations; ability to establish cooperation of all various specialists provide an inclusive process; ability to perform organizational duties, to manage the budget effectively, competently perform tasks for implementing inclusion; ability to work with the community to improve the process of training people with disabilities; ability to interact without conflict with the teaching staff; organize cooperation with parents of children with special educational needs; coordinate information sources; provide institutions with modern information and communication technologies for distance and mixed learning; systematically increase their professional, in particular, inclusive competence; to introduce innovative teaching methods and development of educational process participants, etc.

The following characteristics are of great importance for an effective manager in an inclusive education institution: credibility, creative problem-solver, tolerance for ambiguity, flexible management style, and effective communication skills (Einsiedel Jr., 1987).

At the same time, an effective manager must be familiar with the concept of emotional intelligence, because success in professional activities largely depends on the ability to recognize and manage emotions (Goleman, 1995).

According to research, “the success of any activity is determined by technical skills, knowledge and intellectual abilities (IQ) only by 33%, while the emotional competence (EQ) accounts for the remaining 67%. For employees holding managerial positions, these two figures differ even more: only 15% of success is determined by IQ and the remaining 85% by EQ” (Moldazhanova et al., 2018, p. 17).

Thus, the professional profile of a modern leader includes not only professional, but also business and personal qualities of an education manager: general focus on communication, interaction, dialogue (Budnyk, Fomin, Novoselska & Voitovych, 2020); desire for leadership, capacity for leadership; strong willpower, willingness to take risks, experimentation; desire to succeed, ambition, diligence; erudition, pedagogical observation, sincerity; ability to take responsibility in extreme situations; self-sufficiency, honesty, creativity; emotional stability in communication; combinatorial-prognostic type of thinking (variability, tempo, flexibility, intuitiveness, logic, prediction); recognition of the right of a child with disabilities to study and recognition of him /her as a valuable member of society; tolerance and humanity in management; ability to compromise, empathy, high level of perceptual abilities; ability to overcome stress; adaptability, i.e. rapid adaptation to new conditions, etc.

One of the conditions of effective work of an inclusive educational institution is the level of professional training of the head of this institution to organize the activities of teaching staff in an inclusive educational environment. After all, high-quality management of inclusive education of a child with special needs and his family in the pedagogical process requires not only the leader’s inclusive competence, but also his inclusive values. The management of the inclusive educational institution means the adaptation of all participants of the educational process – parents, students, teachers to new socio-pedagogical conditions. This means creating a favorable inclusive environment in the educational institution, which would be aimed at preserving and improving students’ health. The system of preventive measures of the education manager involves the creation of this environment.

“This process includes: the cultural and philosophical aspect (high level of socio-cultural and civic competence, awareness of the purpose and objectives of health pedagogy in today's global world), social and psychological aspect (experience of psychological and pedagogical communication with students, parents, teachers, members of the public; directing activities to ensure psychological comfort in the educational process); professional-pedagogical aspect (high level of competence in the use of modern technologies of preservation and strengthening all components of health; sufficient level of physical and functional readiness)” (Smolinska, Budnyk, Voitovych, Palahniuk & Smoliuk, 2020).
Professional training and self-improvement of an education manager is considered as a form of independent activity aimed at forming readiness for professional activity in the conditions of socio-economic changes, in particular the introduction of inclusion in the educational sphere (Woods, Woods & Cowie, 2009).

In order to identify the level of inclusive competence in management, we conducted an empirical study of heads of educational institutions of various types (secondary schools, lyceums and colleges). Education managers from Ivano-Frankivsk and Cherkasy regions (Ukraine) (5-15 years of management experience) were involved in the experiment.

We formed two groups of the participants of the experiment:  experimental (EG) – 26 persons and control (CG) – 21 persons. Selecting groups was due to requirements for equality regarding the management and organization of inclusive education institutions and typical contingent of both groups based on the first analysis. In the course of the experiment, a series of lectures with workshop elements, the so-called model of work and management in inclusive conditions were conducted for the experimental group. Considerable attention was paid to the development of professional and personal qualities of an education manager, which are reflected in the professional profile (Fig. 1).

The study of the level of their inclusive competence in management was based on two readiness components:

• cognitive-activity component (formation of knowledge about management in inclusion, its normative-legal basis, methods of formation of inclusive educational environment in an educational institution, peculiarities of pedagogical work with persons with special educational needs; ability to achieve positive results in the management of the inclusive process, establishing constructive work of various specialists in the team, investment activity, etc.);
• effective analytical component (ability to evaluate critically the results of their activities on the formation of an inclusive educational environment in the educational institution, skills of adjusting their activities in working with staff, parents and the community, formation of diagnostic skills, etc.).

Based on the selected components and criteria of inclusive competence, we determined the levels of manager readiness to implement the outlined tasks: high, average, low.

The results of the formation of the cognitive-activity component of the readiness of educational managers to manage an inclusive education institution are presented in Table 1. As you can see, during the forming experiment positive dynamics of the formation of an inclusive educational environment was revealed.

Table 1.
Levels of formation of the cognitive-activity component of the readiness of education managers to form an inclusive educational environment and manage it before and after the experiment.

Thus, the amount of participants in the experimental group with a high level of formation of the cognitive-activity component increased by 7.7%, and with the average – by 11.5%. Accordingly, the number of persons with a low level of formation of this component decreased in the experimental group by 19.1%, while in the control group only by 14.3%. Of course, they are not sufficiently high rates of experimental work, because the level of competence of inclusive education managers, including their skills of using innovative technologies in an inclusive process needs improvement. The learning process in that context was intense, but regulated in time. The main emphasis in research was recognized team approach (Lyons, Thompson & Timmons, 2016) and philosophy of tolerance (Vasianovych, Budnyk, Klepar, Beshok, Blyznyuk & Latyshevska, 2020) in an inclusive process. Modern managers participating in the experiment admitted that they were engaged in self-education, surfed thematic Internet resources, but that usually happened spontaneously and sporadically. Therefore, they appreciated the idea of a systematic training course in the research area.

Figure 2. Levels of formation of the cognitive-activity component of the readiness of managers to form an inclusive educational environment according to the formative experiment.

Consider the results of the formation of the analytical-effective component of the readiness of heads of inclusive education institutions to introduce innovations in the professional activities of the experimental and control groups (Table 2).

Table 2.
Levels of formation of the analytical and effective component of the readiness of managers to form an inclusive educational environment and its management before and after the experiment.

Based on the data obtained (Fig. 3), the final selection at the stage of the formative experiment showed some increase in the experimental groups of the level of effective analytical component of managers' readiness to form an inclusive educational environment.

Figure 3.The results of the formation of the analytical-effective component of the readiness of heads of educational institutions to form an inclusive environment and manage it according to the formative experiment.

Experimental work showed a positive dynamics of managers’ readiness to solve tasks related to the implementation of inclusive education in experimental groups, in contrast to the control group. The readiness of EG respondents was characterized by a high level of independence, creativity, ability to solve practical tasks in inclusive environment professionally, teamwork and empathy.

Thus, the comparative analysis of indicators of the respondents of the experimental and control groups for each of the components of readiness for the formation of an inclusive educational environment and management of an institution with integrated / inclusive learning after the formative stage of the experiment gives reasons to conclude that an important factor of improving this readiness is targeted training, participation in trainings and workshops in the relevant field. During such trainings for educational managers, innovative methods with digital technologies and resources, various forms of offline and online communication were applied.

Conclusions

Based on the theoretical analysis, we conclude that in the management of an educational institution (including inclusive and integrated learning), the priority is a modular organizational structure, which is characterized by: multistage (primary, basic, senior school), multidisciplinary (music, sports, technical, pre-vocational school, etc.), multilevel (preschool, out-of-school educational institution, etc.); branching by areas of activity (educational, training, management) and a variety of forms of organization of the educational process (formal, informal, inclusive, etc.); structured by objects of management.

Based on the results of the experimental work, the necessity to strengthen primarily organizational-methodical and managerial-inclusive competence of heads of educational institutions with integrated / inclusive education was revealed. To cope with this task it is important to conduct not only surveys for identifying the existing level of professional knowledge and skills, but also activities for sharing experience, thematic webinars, conferences, workshops, including the study of best practices of professional inclusive management.

Effective educational inclusive management provides:

• directing managers use innovative forms, methods and means of implementing inclusive education in the educational institution for equal access to quality education for all participants of the pedagogical process;
• introduction of digitalization of education for distance and mixed learning of people with special educational needs (Budnyk & Kotyk, 2020);
• systematic professional development and self-improvement of managers in terms of mastering innovative content and methods of managing an inclusive educational institution;
• supplying of an educational institution with quality pedagogical, correctional, and developmental services for students with disabilities;
• creation of moral and psychological comfort, atmosphere of friendliness, co-creation, cooperation in management activities taking into account the inclusive / integrated form of education, philosophy of tolerance in relation to persons with disabilities (Vasianovych et al., 2020);
• focus on modern universal design in inclusive education.

Conflict of interest : The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.