Abstract
The positive attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education appear to be necessary to successfully implement this policy. The present research, conducted within the French context, seeks to replicate the previous findings regarding students’ type of disability or teachers’ status and extend them by specifically examining the interaction between these two variables. We notably hypothesized that (1) teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education will be the least positive for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in comparison with students with cognitive disorder (CD) and students with motor impairment (MI); (2) special education teachers will have more positive attitudes than general teachers; and more importantly (3) special education teachers, in comparison with general teachers, would be less likely to express distinct attitudes depending on the students’ type of disability. An online questionnaire was completed by 311 teachers. The results replicated the previous findings by showing that teachers’ attitudes were more favorable toward students with MI than students with CD or students with ASD. In addition, taking into account teachers’ status, the results showed that if special education teachers had more positive attitudes than general teachers, they, however, expressed less favorable attitudes toward the inclusion of students with ASD in comparison with those with other types of disabilities. These results are notably discussed regarding the lay beliefs associated with students with ASD and the influence of training.
Highlights
The World Conference on Special Needs Education (UNESCO, 1994) reaffirmed that every child has the right to attend class within the regular education system, to be supported in their learning, and to participate in all aspects of school life
Disability, and Teachers’ Status of their disabilities. This trend was triggered by legal requirements: for example, in France, since 2005, the education system has promoted transformations aiming to counteract the social exclusion of these students (e.g., a 3 year-old pupil with disability is automatically registered within the closest school from his/her home and even if he/she benefits from additional support from a special education class, he/she still belongs to his/her general grade)
Gender, and teaching experiences are sometimes known to influence teachers’ attitudes according to the literature, a preliminary analysis was conducted controlling for the influence of these parameters
Summary
The World Conference on Special Needs Education (UNESCO, 1994) reaffirmed that every child has the right to attend class within the regular education system, to be supported in their learning, and to participate in all aspects of school life. This trend was triggered by legal requirements: for example, in France, since 2005 (and with the enactment of additional legislations), the education system has promoted transformations aiming to counteract the social exclusion of these students (e.g., a 3 year-old pupil with disability is automatically registered within the closest school from his/her home and even if he/she benefits from additional support from a special education class, he/she still belongs to his/her general grade) Such policy is promising since empirical evidence has brought to light encouraging benefits for all students regarding both their academic performance and their social competence (for a review, see Ruijs and Peetsma, 2009). We sought to examine, within the French context, how two well-known antecedents—students’ type of disability (e.g., ASD, CD, and MI) and teachers’ status (i.e., referring here either to general or special education teachers)— interact to determine the attitudes of teachers
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