Principals' views and practices regarding inclusion: the case of Israeli elementary school principals

Inclusive education in Spain: how do skills, resources, and supports affect regular education teachers’ perceptions of inclusion?

“…Findings showed that kindergarten and elementary teachers had more favourable perceptions and attitudes towards inclusion than secondary school teachers. These results support those of Cardona (2011), and Avissar, Reiter, and Leyser (2003) that state that teachers of higher education levels show less positive attitudes towards inclusive education than teachers of lower levels.…”

“…Other factors such as grade level taught, years of teaching experience and gender have also been examined, but research shows inconclusive results. Some works conclude that secondary education teachers have less positive attitudes towards inclusion than their colleagues from kindergarten and elementary school (Avissar, Reiter, and Leyser 2003), while other studies did not find significant differences between teachers from different grade levels (Avramidis, Bayliss and Burden 2000; variable gender is taken into account. Some studies state that female teachers are more tolerant towards inclusion than male teachers (Alghazo and Naggar Gaad 2004;Hutzler, Zach, and Gafni 2005), but others (Batsiou et al 2008;Cardona 2011) found no association between gender and teacher perceptions of inclusion.…”

Principals’ Attitudes Regarding Inclusion of Children with Autism in Pennsylvania Public Schools

“…Overall, studies of the principals' attitudes regarding inclusion have revealed mixed findings. Some showed that they supported the benefits of inclusion, while others revealed a tendency for low expectations for success (Avissar et al 2003). Avissar et al (2003) also reported that principals' vision and leadership behavior can promote inclusive policies; however their support for inclusion depends on the severity of the student's disability.…”

“…Placement decisions are made based on beliefs and experience, therefore students with certain disabilities are not given equal opportunity to be placed in regular education classes, in particular students with emotional disturbance and autism were least likely to be recommended for inclusion by principals (Praisner 2003). In order to assure that inclusive practices reflect more fundamental types of change in schools, it is necessary to overcome attitudinal and knowledge barriers that can impact the success of the inclusion of special needs students in schools (Avissar et al 2003).…”

“It Is Not Our Business”: Perceptions of Department Heads of Teacher Education Programs Regarding Inclusion

“…The successful implementation of inclusion depends on numerous factors, such as the allocation of resources needed to implement inclusion (Balas & Adler, 2004); how the school principals perceive and implement inclusion (Avissar, Reiter, & Leyser, 2003;Day et al, 2009;Graham & Spandagou, 2011;Muijs et al, 2010); the school's organizational climate (Dorczak, 2011); and the school's relationship with the 647 The research literature defines positive attitudes towards people with special needs as "a belief that sees an individual with disabilities as an active member of society, who makes decisions concerning his personal interests and leads a normal life" (Tervo, Palmer, & Redinius, 2004, p. 908).…”