Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inclusive Education

Abstract

Inclusion involves provision of structural environment for students with special needs in general education classroom settings among their peers. Teachers are the fundamental pillar for the successful implementation of inclusive education. The aim of the study was to identify the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of teachers’ attitude towards inclusive education. It was hypothesized that teachers’ attitude towards inclusive education varies with their certain demographic characteristics (education, teaching experiences, teaching level). A survey was conducted to collect the data of present study. Purposive sampling technique was used to obtain the data of 100 teachers from different general education teachers, special education teachers and inclusive education teachers. Multidimensional attitude towards inclusive education scale (MATIES; Mahat, 2008) was used as a survey tool. This is a Likert-type scale which has three subscales namely, cognitive, affective and behavioral. Reliability of the scale for present study is (α = .874). One way ANOVA was conducted to obtain the difference in attitude of teachers with their demographic variables. Significant difference was found in teachers’ attitude in accordance with their experience. Significant difference was found in attitude of teachers teaching to high school students. Teachers of inclusive education were having more positive attitude than other teachers.