International Research Journal for Quality in Education Vol. 6 (2), September (2019) 1 Challenges around Inclusive Classroom according to Supporting Teachers: Ethnographic Report from School Cultures Małgorzata Rudewicz and Beata Borowska-Beszta* Faculty of Education Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, POLAND *borbesz@umk.pl, borbesz@gmail.com Abstract The following article is an excerpt from the entire qualitative, ethnographic research report on the challenges existing at work of 9 supporting teachers in inclusive classrooms of 2 public schools in Poland. The research project was carried out as part of the master's thesis of the first author of the article under the supervision of the second author. The main research question analyzed in this article is: what challenges do supporting teachers have while working in the inclusive classrooms? In addition, the data was focused to obtain the answers for three detailed research questions. Data analysis was conducted using thematic coding and categorization techniques according to Gibbs 1 . The study results identified 8 main categories related to the challenges indicated by 9 supporting teachers working in inclusive classrooms. These are (a) an institutional support, (b) lack of institutional support, (c) educational barriers, (d) dealing with educational barriers, (e) conflicts, (f) difficulties of supporting teachers, (g) difficulties of leading teachers, and (h) space. Keywords: Social sciences, education, disabilities, special education needs, inclusive classroom, challenges, teachers. Introduction Challenges of supporting teachers in the inclusive classrooms are comprehensive issues related to various problems ground within school as an general institution in the national educational system and to the detailed levels of a school as an organizational culture. Speaking of the school culture, the challenges for teachers may relate to the level of cooperation particularly in the inclusive classroom between leading and supporting teachers or outside the classroom in the context of the general school culture. On the inclusive classroom level, there are difficulties in cooperation with parents of able-bodied and disabled children, as well as problems related to didactic and educational work in the classroom. The following research report takes into account the concept of perceiving school as an organizational culture 2,3 which implies the existence of at least three main layers of school culture: artifacts (physical, behavioral [language, symbols]), values and hidden assumptions 2 . Czerepaniak-Walczak 3 cites the definition of school culture after Ward and Burke 4 . The author writes "I assume that school culture is all beliefs, views, attitudes and relationships as well as written and unwritten rules that shape every aspect of the school's functioning as an institution, organization and community"(p.1). Moreover this article considers two main assumptions of speaking of the defined disabilities, considering person-concepts, which includes term as “with disabilities” and also identity-concepts which include the term “disabled.” Both terms are accepted and justified in social sciences and especially disability studies. Speaking of the Polish research undertaken under the way of implementation of the inclusive education in Poland after year 1989 and socio-economic and political changes, research analysis indicates complexed challenges experienced by the supporting teachers in the inclusive classrooms. Buchnat 5 researched the support offered to 120 teachers in their professionalization to work with children with mild intellectual disabilities in regular, public schools. One of the general findings from the survey was that “it turns out that 51% of the surveyed group definitely do not support the education of children with mild intellectual disability in public school, 28% of respondents are unlikely to support, but only 2.5% fully supports this model of their education in regular schools”(p.192). The professional preparation of the teachers for teaching of children with mild intellectual disabilitis in regular schools was also poor according to Buchnat 5 . In addition, Buchnat 5 analyzed reports from the other Polish research and foud that authors such as Gajdzica 6 , Al- Khamisy 7 and Garlej-Drzewiecka 8 indicated in the research the existence of a low level of preparation of Polish teachers to work with children with special educational needs. Similar conclusion was cited Borowska-Beszta 9 in the review article. Low level of preparation or even lack thereof is confirmed by studies analyzing mistakes made by teachers in working with a student with a disabilities. Buchnat 5 indicates research carried out by Wachowiak 10 and Jachimczak 11 which shows that teachers working with students with disabilities have problems with establishing the adequate requirements for students that would not exceed their capabilities. In addition, results of cited research show a low competence in recognizing the needs of children with special educational needs and low skills to adapt the curriculum to their capabilities. Moreover, Buchnat 5 indicated that teachers