Teachers' Attitudes toward Inclusion: Survey Results from Elementary School Teachers in Three Southwestern Rural School Districts

Abstract

Since the mid 1980s, there has been a strong national movement to include all children in general education classrooms within their neighborhood schools. This movement has met with much support; however, there are many challenges professionals encounter when implementing inclusionary programs. Although, for years, we have acknowledged the challenges and concerns teachers have, these issues continue to plague our educators. To rectify the problems, we need to specifically identify the teachers' concerns and then begin to establish methods to directly address the issues. This study investigated the attitudes of elementary school teachers towards inclusion within three rural school districts in a southwestern area of United States. Summary information was obtained, analyzed and used to make recommendations to address the teachers' concerns for implementing effective and successful inclusionary programs.

Efeitos da experiência clínica na percepção de profissionais do pré-atendimento na utilização de serviços especiais. DOI: 10.5007/1980-0037.2011v13n2p145

“…The intention was to establish unique and alternative pedagogical practices that could be added to the methodologies used in teacher education. This initial theory was consistent with additional research findings, and suggested future research domains 1,[11][12][13][14][15] . Of the four categories observed, the two which displayed significance (Classroom Atmosphere and Self-Efficacy) did not attend to the primordial hypothesis.…”

“…At the conclusion of each trial, groups (G1 and G2) were given the Preservice Professional Perspectives on Inclusion Questionnaire (P 3 IQ,), a survey that was modified from Prevailing Attitudes about Inclusion 12 and the inclusion checklist developed by Smith, Polloway, Patton, and Dowdy…”

Inclusion of Children with Hearing Impairment in Schools: A Survey on Teachers’ Attitudes

“…Teachers' attitudes have been regarded as one of the major factors guaranteeing the success of inclusive education for students with special needs. It is important to examine the attitudes of mainstream educators as their perceptions may influence their behaviour towards, and acceptance of, such students (Sideridis & Chandler, 1996;Van Reusen et al, 2001;Hammond & Ingalls, 2003). The success of an inclusionary programme may be at risk if regular classroom teachers have negative perceptions regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities (Horne, 1983;Van Reusen et al, 2001).…”

Are school administrators and teachers' attitudes toward inclusion influence by the change process?

“…The researchers concluded that the attitudes of the teachers toward students with disabilities did influence the quality of education for concern and rejection students. Hammond and Ingalls (2003) examined the attitudes of elementary school teachers toward the inclusion model adopted by their school district. The researchers deemed the necessity of exploring the attitudes of inclusionary teachers to help understand the challenges and concerns these teachers face to implement inclusion for students with disabilities.…”

“…The concern, therefore, remains that negative teacher attitudes greatly affect the instruction (Hammond & Ingalls, 2003) and expectations teachers have for students with disabilities (Robinson, 2002;Santo Ii, Sachs, Romey, & McClurg, 2008).…”