Abstract
The study examined principals’ attitude and factors that influence their attitudes towards implementation of inclusive education in secondary schools in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria. A survey design was used and samples of 116 principals through stratified random sampling were selected. Data on principals’ attitude towards inclusion regarding their knowledge of special education, type of school, gender and years of service in general education setting were collected using an adapted instrument titled: Scale of Teachers’ Attitude Towards Inclusive Classroom (STATIC) developed by Cochran (1997). The instrument has a reliability coefficient of 89. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Result indicates that high percentage of school heads had positive attitude towards inclusion. Principals with knowledge of special education showed high positive attitude towards inclusion than those without prior knowledge. Gender, years of service, and the type of school they head (public/private) did not produce significant difference. Every Principal should have fair knowledge of inclusive education for proper implementation of inclusive education because the principals’ role cannot be overemphasized. This study will spur more research on the role of principals’ attitude in the implementation of inclusive education in Nigeria and the need to improve their knowledge on special education.
Highlights
Inclusion of diverse range of children discriminated or excluded from regular schools has gained worldwide attention
The instrument has two sections; section A was on teachers personal data comprising gender, years of service in general education, knowledge of inclusive education and school type, and section B which elicited information on teachers attitude towards inclusive education has 20 items adopted from Cocharam [42] to be responded on a six point likert scale
It is concluded that 76% of the principals have neutral or positive attitude towards inclusion of students with special needs in general education classrooms
Summary
Inclusion of diverse range of children discriminated or excluded from regular schools has gained worldwide attention. This change in educational delivery is advocated because of its obvious advantages notable among which are the beliefs that life preparations and social skills necessary for achievement of much desired inclusive society should start from classrooms. Special needs people are challenged by their disabilities and differences, they in addition face much challenges in many areas of their lives especially those involving people’s attitudes [1] These set of people are more likely to be discriminated and excluded from educational opportunities as a result of attitudes of others [2]. There is need to understand, accept and integrate discriminated and excluded people in our regular education setting to enable them participate and contribute to the societal growth
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