DEVELOPMENT OF THE US SOCIETY ATTITUDE TO SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS’ TRAINING

Abstract

The article examines the history of the emergence of special education teacher in the United States as a profession through the lens of the attitude of the US society towards the need for general and then special education. The society's attitudes toward education in the United States have undergone dramatic changes over time: from rejecting the need for education for children to creating an extensive network of special and general education institutions that provide the conditions for the education and treatment for children with disabilities. Accordingly, the attitude towards the special education teachers’ training has changed: from the negation of the need to train teachers to heated debate on specializations and methods of effective teacher training, in particular special education teachers. The study of the impact of social initiatives on the development of US special education and teacher training is conducted to identify trends in the domestic special education industry.

The importance of legislative endorsement of social initiatives is emphasized in the article, since only due to the adoption of «The Education for All Handicapped Children Act» (now known as «The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act») a mandatory legislative obligation to provide free, appropriate public education in the least restricted environment for all children with disabilities ages 3-21 was introduced and funded.

It is emphasized that nowadays in the USA special education teachers’ preparation takes place in accordance with certain specializations introduced in the taxonomic scheme «Classification of Instructional Programs». The US statistics for special education teachers’ training in the 2018/2019 school year are presented.

Scientific novelty is in addressing to the problem of US special education teachers’ training on the basis of the author’s analysis of legislative, theoretical and statistical materials.

Conclusions. Based on the analysis, some tendencies on special education teachers’ preparation in the USA were noted: not all instructional programs are used for university training; the number of graduates does not meet the needs of the regions, as the number of individuals with special educational needs far exceeds the available number of the teaching staff available; most special education teachers in every US economic region are taught in accordance to the Special Education and Teaching, General instructional program.