Special Education Teachers, Attitudes toward Including Students with SEN in Mainstream Primary Schools in Singapore

Abstract

Singapore, one of the world’s leaders in education, began including students with special educational needs in mainstream primary schools in 2004. Although teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion are well documented in other parts of the world, there is a paucity of research on inclusion in Singapore. This lack of research limits the ability of teachers and teacher educators in understanding the barriers that exist and how to overcome them. The goal of the present study was to examine special education teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive classrooms in mainstream primary schools in Singapore. Participants were thirty-eight special education teachers with at least one year of experience working with students with special education needs in mainstream classrooms. Data were collected using the Multidimensional Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale. The overall findings indicated that, while additional research needs to be completed, participants’ in this initial study have positive attitudes towards inclusion in mainstream classrooms and are willing to make adaptations to the curriculum to accommodate students with special educational needs in their classrooms.