Pre-service teachers’ perspectives and attitudes towards inclusive education at a private EFL language institute in Asunción, Paraguay

Abstract

Teacher’s attitudes and perceptions towards inclusive education are fairly important for it to be effective. As a result, this thesis briefly describes the importance of inclusive education and proceeds to perform a study to determine teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education in a Paraguayan educational institution. At a time when countries are changing their policies to conform to international declarations that inform inclusion, it is of high importance that those teachers’ views are taken into consideration. This is because they will be in charge of implementing this policy’s decisions and leaving them unaccounted for may stagnate any realistic achievements an inclusion approach may aim to forestall. Teachers from a private English institute, selected through purposeful sampling, were asked to complete questionnaires about their attitudes and perceptions towards inclusive education. The main criteria to include them in the study were that they must be participating in the pre-service teacher training program. The data provided insights into the way teachers understand inclusion, the support that they require in practice, and how they meet classroom challenges in practice. The study revealed that trained teachers lacked relevant knowledge on all key areas under study and this could influence the way they view inclusion. Most of the knowledge the teachers had was learnt some years back in college and most of it is outdated owing to the changing dynamics that constantly give new shapes to inclusion. The study points the need to look for ways of furnishing teachers with relevant knowledge and information that would help review their positions on inclusion.