How are teachers' attitudes toward inclusion related to the social-emotional school experiences of students with and without special educational needs?

Abstract

Although positive teacher attitudes toward inclusion are often claimed as a prerequisite for successful inclusive education, quantitative empirical evidence for that claim is very scarce. This multilevel study explored the relations between teachers' attitudes toward inclusion and students' social integration and school well-being as indicators of successful inclusive education in 757 German primary school students and 37 teachers. Students with and without special educational needs (SEN) did not differ in their self-reported school well-being. However, students with SEN felt less socially integrated than their classmates without SEN underlining that physical inclusion does not automatically lead to social integration. Further, the expected effect of a positive teacher attitude was partly supported: The stronger the perceived benefits of inclusive vs. special education, the smaller the gap in social integration between students with and without SEN. In future research on teachers' attitudes toward inclusion differences in specific attitude subdimensions should be acknowledged.