Professional Documents
Culture Documents
educational problems presented have been Another factor that has attracted
noted to influence teachers’ attitudes. considerable attention is the knowledge
Forlin (1995) as cited in Eavramidis and about children with disabilities gained
Brahmnorwich, (2002) found that through pre- and in-service training. This
educators were cautiously accepting of was considered as an important factor in
including a child with cognitive disability improving teachers’ attitudes towards the
and were more accepting of children with implementation of an inclusive policy.
physical disabilities. The degree of Without a coherent plan for teacher training
acceptance for inclusion was high for in the educational needs of children with
children considered to have mild or special needs, attempts to include these
moderate disabilities. . children in the mainstream would be
difficult (Eavramidis & Brahmnorwich.
A great deal of research regarding teacher 2002). In support of the above, a research
characteristics has sought to determine conducted by Abate (2001) in some schools
relationship between those characteristics of Addis Ababa reveals a significant
and attitudes towards children with special stasical difference between regular teacher
needs. Researchers have explored a number who had training in inclusive education and
of specific teacher variables, such as who did not.
gender, age, years of teaching experience,
grade level, and contact with disabled Generally, research conducted in some
persons and personality factors, which schools of Addis Ababa show a high
might influence teachers’ acceptance of the correlation of teachers’ attitudes with
inclusion principle. factors like availability of support, adapted
curriculum, training, materials, and
With regard to gender, studies conducted classroom size. In support of the above,
appears inconsistent; some researchers Etenesh (2000), experienced 100 students
noted that female teachers had a greater in one class, which makes the teaching
tolerance level for integration and for learning process more difficult even for the
special needs persons than did male non-disabled children. As a result, she
teachers (Aksamit, Morris & Leunberger, concluded that teachers will not be in a
1987; Eichinger, Rizzo & Sirotnik, 1991; position to attend the individual problem
Thomas, 1985) as cited by Eavramidis and and interested in them. Further, she
Brahmnorwich, (2002). On the other hand, explained that lack of accessible and
research conducted by Abate (2001) flexible curriculum and lack of training as
confirmed that there is no statistical the ultimate challenge in affecting teachers’
significant difference in attitudes between attitude negatively.
male and female regular teachers.
Role of Teachers and Training in
Teaching experience is another factor Inclusive Education
mentioned in several studies as having an It is the fact that regular schools and
influence on teachers’ attitudes. In this regular classroom environment often fail to
case, much of the research conducted accommodate the education needs of many
seems consistent. For example, as students, especially individual with
mentioned by Eavramidis and disability. This is the reason that so many
Brahmnorwich(2002) , younger teachers pupils with disabilities do not attend
and those with fewer years of experience regular schools. Until regular schools have
have been found to be supportive to developed capacity to cater to them; it is
integration/inclusion than with those more difficult to argue for inclusion. One of the
experience. major challenges to achieve this goal lies
Ethiop. J. Educ. & Sc. Vol. 6 No 1 September 2010 94
However, inadequate financial provision Class size, which are found consistently
remains one to the major obstacle to the influencing attitudes of teachers in
implementation of meaningful programs implementation of inclusive education
such as inclusive education in many negatively . It seems reasonable to
countries. This idea also reflected by conclude here that with the provision of
Tirussew (1999) as money is a constraint to more resources and support, flexible and
run inclusive education programs. accessible curriculum, pre-service and in-
service training; teachers’ attitudes could
Generally, teachers training programs, become more positive. Furthermore,
adapted curriculum, teachers’ attitudes, Variables like gender and age of experience
materials and equipments provision and are found to be inconsistent in this review,
financial sources are among the frontiers of which may imply that these variables could
challenge in the implementation of not be strong enough to predict teachers’
inclusive education. Particularly attitudes attitude.
of teachers’ remains the ultimate challenge
since it is influenced by the presence of all Finally, the reviewers of this paper
other factor mentioned above. For example, observed that many of the researches use
when resources and proper training are not survey –likert scale as their method and
available negative results concerning only few attempts were made to include
attitudes toward inclusive education are other sources of data, such as teacher
likely to happen. Therefore, for the interviews, focus group discussion and
successful implementation of inclusive classroom observation, which indicates the
education major challenges (like teachers inadequacy of measurements and this,
attitude) have to be overcome beforehand. might be one of the reasons of inconsistent
results.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of this paper is to review the Implication
attitudes of teachers towards inclusive This review implies the need for the
education. The analyses of literature review development of positive attitude towards
showed evidence of negative as well as the successful implementation of inclusive
positive attitudes of teachers towards education. Further, the review entails the
inclusive education in different times and need to the availability of training, adapted
places. The inconsistency in the result curriculum, resources and utmost
indicates the need for further study in the responsibility of the teachers for the
area. However, in the research that implementation of inclusive education.
resulted in the presence of negative attitude Another implication is for professionals,
of teachers toward inclusive education, practitioners and policy makers to design
indicates the need for intervention to bring programs to intervene negative attitudes
about more positive attitude, as long as and to control factors contributing towards
teachers’ attitudes remain critical for negative attitudes in implementing
successful implementation of inclusive successful inclusion.
education.
Another conclusion of this review is REFERENCES
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