Twin-track approach to teacher training in Ghana: exploring the moderation effect of demographic variables on pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education

Abstract

The government of Ghana has demonstrated commitment towards implementing inclusive education in selected schools. However, a major concern has been the lack of teachers’ skills in addressing diverse needs of students in classrooms. While there are parallel institutions training teachers, the perceptions and level of acceptance among pre-service teachers in terms of practicing inclusive education across these institutions is hitherto unresearched. The Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised scale was used to collect data from the participants (n = 855), who were recruited from two campuses of a public university (n = 331) and three colleges of education (n = 524). We found an interaction effect of the demographic variables of school type, contact with students with disabilities and familiarity with inclusive education policy on pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education. The implications of these findings for initial teacher preparation for the implementation of inclusive education are discussed.