| Abstract [eng] |
In the paper, we have done the theoretical analysis of theoretical aspects of socialisation and legal education. The following hypotheses have been raised: 1) it is presumable that the schoolbooks of special schools give insufficient legal knowledge; 2) legal knowledge of the middle school age children with slight mental retardation is insufficient; 3) pedagogues valuate the importance of legal knowledge fairly adequately. The research has been done by the methods of content analysis, interview, and questionnaire, and it aimed at ascertainment of the situation of legal education in the special school. We have done the statistical (descriptive of averages, correlative) analysis of the data. 228 respondents (132 schoolchildren of middle school age with slight mental retardation and 96 specialists (special pedagogues, social pedagogues) participated in the research. In the empirical part, with reference to the legal education matter, we have explored the schoolbooks of special school for V – X classes, the legal knowledge of the middle school age with slight mental retardation, the need of legal knowledge, and the attitude of pedagogues towards the legal education. The main conclusions of the empirical investigation are as follows: 1. The results of the research did not confirm the hypothesis that the schoolbooks for special schools give insufficient knowledge of law. The comparative analysis of the schoolbooks of comprehensive and special education in the aspect of legal education revealed that these schoolbooks contain sufficient educational material for legal education, but the schoolbooks were rarely used as a source of legal knowledge. 2. The hypothesis that the pupils of middle school age with slight mental retardation have insufficiently deep knowledge of law, and this knowledge is of fragmentary character has been proved. 3. The analysis of the research data allowed identifying the following obstacles of the legal knowledge spread in the special school: insufficient legal qualification of the pedagogues; uncertainty of the legal education; persuasion of the pedagogues that the parents of pupils should be concerned most of all for rendering of the legal knowledge. 4. The positiveness is such that pedagogues perceive the importance of legal knowledge and discuss the questions of legal education with the parents of pupils during conversations or consultations. The biggest part of the legal knowledge is given to the pupils in the lessons of ethics, history and Lithuanian language. The rendering of legal knowledge in special school is not regulated; this activity depends only on legal competence of the pedagogues and their attitude towards legal education. The hypothesis that pedagogues valuate the importance of legal knowledge fairly adequately has been not proved. |
