Teachers’ Attitudes towards Including Students with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Mainstream School: A Systematic Research Synthesis

Abstract

Previous research reviews on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education have shown that students’ types of special educational needs influences teachers’ attitudes; these reviews have also indicated that, in terms of the inclusion of various groups, teachers are most negative about including students with behavioural problems. This article is a review of the research on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion with regard to students who have special educational needs. It specifically identifies evidence regarding teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of students with emotional and behavioural difficulty (EBD). For this review, 15 studies, measuring teachers’ attitudes from 15 countries, met the inclusion criteria. The results of this synthesis confirmed that most teachers hold negative attitudes towards the inclusion of students with EBD; however, this was not true in all countries. The results also highlight specific explanations for why teachers hold negative attitudes towards including students with EBD in their classrooms. The implication of this synthesis is that teachers feel that their prerequisites for successfully including students with EBD are not being met; this impracticability is most impactful when the teachers nevertheless try to include these students. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.2.3