The role of primary school teachers’ attitudes and self‐efficacy beliefs for everyday practices in inclusive classrooms – a study on the verification of the ‘Theory of Planned Behaviour’

Abstract

Within the framework of implementing inclusive education in primary schools, various questions arise concerning the role of teachers’ personal resources in their everyday practices in heterogeneous classrooms. Teachers’ professional personalities as well as their intentions concerning inclusive teaching are considered to be important prerequisites for successful learning environments. Therefore, we examined the relevance of primary school teachers’ personal resources, such as their attitudes towards inclusion and their perceived collective self‐efficacy beliefs concerning inclusive teaching, in terms of their everyday practices in heterogeneous classrooms on the basis of the ‘Theory of Planned Behaviour’. We investigated N = 290 primary school teachers’ everyday practices according to their attitudes towards inclusion, their collective self‐efficacy beliefs concerning inclusive education, their perceptions of school management’s expectations and their intentions regarding inclusive education. The results of our study indicate that primary school teachers’ everyday practices in heterogeneous classrooms are significantly predicted by their intentions regarding the implementation of inclusive education and by their attitudes towards inclusive education but not by their collective self‐efficacy beliefs or by their perceptions of school management’s expectations. Specifically, the effect of teachers’ attitudes on their everyday practices in heterogeneous classrooms is significantly mediated by their intentions regarding the implementation of inclusive education.