Majority of European countries implement inclusive education and focus on the meeting of the diverse educational needs of children in a regular school (www.european-agency.org).  Nevertheless, in many countries, including Lithuania, children with special educational needs and their families continue facing significant barriers to access high quality inclusive education. One the main barriers relates to teachers’ preparedness and their changing roles in inclusive school. The author aimed at analysing teachers’ roles and sentiments while working in inclusive school. The research methodology was based on the concept of inclusive education and the qualitative research approach. The discussions with teachers in seven focus groups in different school contexts in Lithuania have been organised focusing on the research question what are the roles and sentiments of the teacher‘s while educating diverse children in a regular class?

We base our understanding of inclusive education on the internationally adopted definition (UNESCO, 2009). Strive for inclusive education requires new thinking about what constitutes effective and engaging teaching and learning for all. Teachers are now facing the challenge that former knowledge, minds and learning no longer serve the world where what we know is less important that what we are able to do with knowledge in different contexts (Friesen, 2009). Educational settings and teachers, therefore, need to commit to the transformation of their communities for the implementation of inclusive education to be successful. Regarding the importance of the role of teachers, research indicates that they play a critical role in the implementation of inclusive education (Forlin et al. 2010). The changing role of the teacher in inclusive school can be a challenging for those who is used to being a knowledge provider. ‘Task of the teacher, who is also a learner <…> demands seriousness and scientific, physical, emotional, and affective preparation’ (Freire, 1998, p. 3). In this context three interrelated dimensions knowing, acting, and being are of most importance. The dimension of knowing is an epistemological space, in which teacher as a learner can acquire a deep understanding of knowledge and take up critical stances in relation to it; acting is a practical space, so that a teacher can develop the capacities for purposive but critical actions, which may be either tied to their forms of knowledge of professional field or more life oriented; being is an ontological space, for the development of the teacher’s own being (Barnett, Coate, 2006).

The qualitative content analysis of the interviews with the participants of the research revealed that teachers live with challenges, which are related to: a) new knowledge, awareness, and experience required to work in an inclusive class; b) managing with diversity of learners in a classroom; c) coping with new un-expected situations in inclusive class. The research showed that three main components are of most importance while working with diverse children, such as:  cognitive – comprehensibility of the new situation, new concepts, new knowledge required, etc.; emotional – meaningfulness, e.g. how teachers cope with a new situations; and managerial – how do they use their internal and external resources in challenging situations, what teaching and learning strategies they used to use while educating children with diverse educational needs in a classroom. The results of the research encourage the discussion focusing on the question does the situation of teachers’, who work in inclusive classroom can be analysed using the Sense of Coherence Model (Antonovsky, 1991)?  Model is defined as ‘the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic, feeling of confidence that one’s environment is predictable and that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected’. In other words, a mixture of optimism and control is important.

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