Inclusive Education in Bangladesh: Are Pre-service Teachers Ready to Accept Students with Special Educational Needs in Regular Classes?

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine pre-service special education (PSpE)

A cross-sectional study of pre-service teachers’ views about disability and attitudes towards inclusive education

“…A quarter of them agreed and over a quarter of them was undecided about these beliefs. The results are consistent with other findings indicating that university students in Ghana (Naami & Hayashi, 2012), most pre-service teachers in Botswana (Dart, 2006), teachers in United Arab Emirates (Gaad, 2004) and pre-service teachers in Bangladesh (Malak, 2013) are predisposed to misconceptions and superstitious beliefs about the causes of disability which influence them to worry about students with disabilities.…”

“…Conversely, increased contact with persons with disabilities has been found to explain positive changes in scores on comfort levels (Carroll, Forlin, & Jobling, 2003;Sharma et al, 2008). Pre-service teachers with a family member or close friend with a disability exhibit more positive attitudes towards students with disabilities (Haimour, 2012) and inclusion (Dart, 2006;Parasuram, 2006) and fewer concerns about the inclusion of students with disabilities into regular classes (Chhabra et al, 2010;Forlin et al, 2009;Malak, 2013).…”

“…Similarly, some studies have found positive attitudes among pre-service teachers towards disability (Forlin & Chambers, 2011;Haimour, 2012) and inclusive education (Lambe & Bones, 2006;Muwana, 2012); others have found negative attitudes towards disability (Alghazo et al, 2003) and inclusive education (EL-Ashry, 2009;Kuyini & Mangope, 2011;Malak, 2013).…”

“…Similarly, studies from Israel (Florian & Katz, 1983), Bangladesh (Malak, 2013), Nepal (Dhungana, 2006), India (Pacha, 2012), United Arab Emirates and Jordan (Alghazo et al, 2003;Gaad, 2004) and other cross-cultural studies (Groce, 1999) have shown that these cultural and ethnic beliefs about causes of disabilities appear to influence negative attitudes towards the disabled and marginalized minority groups and their educational and social inclusion. The cultural understanding of disability places enormous limitation on the lives of individuals with disability much more than their specific type of impairments (Groce, 1999).…”

English language pre-service and in-service teachers’ self-efficacy and attitudes towards integration of students with learning difficulties

“…Numerous studies reported the positive effects of courses on inclusion and teaching children with SEN and some of them also described the content of those courses (e.g. O'Gorman & Drudy, 2011;Malak, 2013;Oswald & Swart, 2011;Ahsan, Sharma & Deppeler, 2012). Sparks (2009, p. 16) pointed out that "the most important issue masked by the use of course substitutions and waivers is that special educators and foreign language instructors feel no sense of urgency to develop teaching methods that can be used with at-risk learners".…”