In my master's thesis, I discussed the qualification of professionals in montessori kindergartens for inclusive approaches to working with children with special needs. In the theoretical part I have given different definitions of children with special needs and defined the placement of children with special needs. I further defined kindergartens, legislation in the field of pre-school education, counseling service in kindergartens. I defined Montessori pedagogy and presented montessori kindergartens in Slovenia. At the end of the theoretical part, I presented the inclusion of children with special needs and indicators of inclusion. In the empirical part, I presented the findings of interviewing educators, who have already worked with a child with special needs in a montessori kindergarten, and a counselor who presented me with counseling work in a montessori kindergarten. Questions for educators were related to their work with children with special needs (what is their attitude towards them, what pedagogical approaches they use and how qualified they feel to work with children with special needs). I also asked them about the incentives and barriers to the inclusion of children with special needs in their kindergartens and about the counseling service. The questions for the counselor were related to the tasks of the counseling service in montessori kindergartens. Research has shown that educators in montessori kindergartens encounter children with special needs and use individual and montessori approaches when working with them. When working with children with special needs, they strive to ensure that the attitude towards children with special needs is the same as the attitude with other children in the group. Research has also shown that montessori educators feel qualified to work with children with special needs, but would still need additional education, supervision, etc. to work with them. Educators in montessori kindergartens see both incentives and barriers to the inclusion of children with special needs. I learned about the counseling service about the duties of a counselor in a montessori kindergarten. I learned that counseling services in montessori kindergartens are underrepresented. As reasons for this, educators stated that kindergartens do not see the need for this, due to the small size and privacy of the kindergarten, due to the costs that would be incurred due to hiring a counselor, etc.
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