Abstract
<p style="text-align:justify">After more than two decades of the Salamanca Statement, discrimination and marginalization still exist. There is a need to implement inclusion to promote educational accessibility, quality, and equity for all to combat exclusion. As a result, inclusion challenged educational systems, especially teachers who are its primary implementers. Understanding the significant role of teachers in the parlance of the inclusive agenda is an essential area of inquiry; however, relatively less is known about it. This paper addresses the chasm by looking more profoundly into the teachers’ skills and dispositions about inclusion. Through a cross-sectional survey, this paper examined and compared the Filipino and Thai in-service teachers’ efficacy and attitudes about inclusion and its association with their intentions for inclusive practices. Data revealed that Filipino teachers have a generally higher level of positive attitudes, efficacy, and intentions for inclusive practices than their Thai counterparts. Also, there is a significant and positive correlation between the respondents’ attitudes, efficacy, and intentions for inclusive practices. Considering the historical and cultural contexts, the results of the study construed a deeper understanding of the teachers’ inclusive practices. Insights gathered from the study are instrumental in the examination and understanding of the teachers’ role in the inclusive agenda.</p>
Highlights
The changing needs of the society continuously create a paradigm shift in the policies and program implementation of agencies in the global community
Results showed that Filipino participants have a positive attitude for inclusive practices, as shown in their high mean score of 5.779 or “very likely” in all the ten statements (See Table 4)
Data gathered indicated that Filipino participants have “very likely” intentions to teach in an inclusive setting, evidenced in their high agreement in all seven statements with the mean score of 5.941
Summary
The changing needs of the society continuously create a paradigm shift in the policies and program implementation of agencies in the global community. The implementation of IE is primarily influenced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994). The same statement compelled schools to allow children with physical, cognitive, emotional, cultural, gender, and other conditions to be educated alongside their typically-developing peers (UNESCO, 1994). Its eventual success is dependent on how teachers in the regular settings view their role in the inclusive agenda- being its primary implementers (Del- Corro - Tiangco & Bustos, 2014; Forlin et al, 2014; Hecht et al, 2017; Kaur et al, 2016; Kuyini et al, 2018; Majoko, 2019; Muega, 2016). One significant factor that enables teachers to become effective inclusive practitioner is to acquire the right disposition and skills to teach children with disabilities in the regular classrooms (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002; Forlin & Chambers, 2011; Hecht et al, 2017; Sharma & Jacobs, 2016), for example, the kind of attitude, efficacy, intentions, perspective, and concerns they hold about inclusion (Kaur et al, 2016; Loreman et al, 2014; Sharma & Jacobs, 2016; Sharma et al, 2012)
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