Hong Kong Physical Education Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching Students with Disabilities: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to identify and examine the beliefs of physical education (PE) teachers in Hong Kong toward teaching students with disabilities. Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), a qualitative design was employed to examine the underlying beliefs (behavioral, normative, and control) of PE teachers regarding teaching students with disabilities in their mainstream curricular PE. Participants were five Hong Kong PE teachers (F=3, M=2). Data were gathered in individual semi-structured interviews, analyzed and presented as descriptive summaries by content analysis (Patton, 2002). Results show that PE teachers intend to implement inclusive practices because of their motivation to comply with inclusive policies and significant referents (SN), and their perceived behavior control (PBC), although they have less than favorable attitudes toward inclusion and toward teaching students with disabilities (AB). These results confirm the importance of subjective norms and perceived behavior control on the decisions of teachers to teach students with disabilities in inclusive PE settings. This study brings to the literature information on the beliefs of PE teachers regarding inclusion and teaching students with disabilities.