Teachers‟ Attitude towards Inclusive Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of general education teachers toward including students with Special Needs Education (SNE) in the regular classroom, and to find out relation of attitude with sex, age, educational background, educational level, teaching experience, and experience with special needs education and pre-service training in special needs and inclusive education. Teachers from three primary schools in Saja town, which is found in southern Ethiopia, participated in the study. Cochran‟s Survey of Teacher‟s Attitudes towards Inclusive Classrooms (STATIC) scale was modified (Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of .89) and used. A total of 60 randomly selected teachers from three primary schools participated in completing the questionnaires. Quantitative methods of data analysis were employed to interpret findings. The overall mean of all respondents on the STATIC was 3.82 with 0.700 standard deviation. This mean showed that teachers participated in the study have slightly positive attitude toward inclusion. The study revealed significant difference among teachers‟ attitudes toward including students with Special Needs Education and some demographic variables, and experience, with person with disability knowledge and understanding about education of student with special needs education. However, no evidence was found for difference on teachers‟ attitude and characteristics like age, educational level, the numbers of years of teaching experience and experience with person with disability. The findings of this study trace that teachers‟ attitude play vital role for successful inclusion practices. Based on the findings, quality teachers training and further investigation on varies aspects of the issue were recommended.