Inclusive education in Saudi Arabia and Finland: pre‐service teachers’ attitudes

Abstract

AbstractThis study compared two samples of pre‐service teachers from Saudi Arabia (n = 306) and Finland (n = 186) regarding their attitudes towards inclusive education. The Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (TAIS) was used to measure the participants’ attitudes. The results were analysed using five different statistical analysis. Differences in pre‐service teachers’ attitudes were found between samples. The mean for the Finnish sample on the TAIS was near the neutral midpoint, while that for the Saudi sample was below the midpoint. The attitudes towards inclusion as a value were similar between the Saudi and Finnish samples. Significant differences were found by gender and educational background for the Saudi sample but not for the Finnish sample. In conclusion, several differences were found between the attitudes of the Saudi and Finnish pre‐service teachers towards inclusive education. These cross‐national differences present challenges to the development of culturally neutral instruments to measure attitudes towards inclusion.