University pathway teachers’ salient beliefs of inclusive education: an elicitation study of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has been increasingly used in the field of inclusive education to develop instruments that predict teachers’ inclusive behaviour. To ensure the instrument developed to measure the constructs of the TPB is closely aligned to the theory, an elicitation study should be conducted as the first step. However, they are often omitted or rarely reported in the literature, particularly in the literature surrounding inclusive education. This study extends the use of the TPB to an under-researched population in higher education, university pathway teachers (UPTs), who work in programs that provide alternative access to university education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten UPTs from New South Wales, Australia to elicit their salient behavioural, normative, and control beliefs on inclusive education. Directed content analysis results showed that UPTs view inclusive education positively but are concerned with the extra time and work involved. In addition, UPTs believed that students without disability would be potentially opposing inclusive education. UPTs also revealed various essential facilitators and hindrances of inclusive education. These findings have implications for extending understandings of inclusive education to university pathway programs as well as for the importance of elicitation studies when using TPB with new populations.