Educator's attitudes towards inclusive education
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Date
2003
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Abstract
The present investigation had three objectives. The first aim was to examine educators' attitudes towards inclusive education. The second aim was to determine the extent to which educators were influenced by factors such as qualifications, age, gender, phase, experience, and class size. The third aim was to find out whether educators who have contact with special education personnel, hold positive attitudes towards inclusive education.
The questionnaire was administered to groups of black and white educators teaching in mainstream settings, a remedial centre and in a pilot school for inclusive education in KwaZulu-Natal.
Fifty-eight percent of the educators were found to have negative attitudes towards inclusive education, whereas forty-two percent displayed a positive attitude towards inclusive education.
Results also indicated that the variables of age, gender, qualification, experience, grade and class-size have an influence on educators' attitudes towards inclusive education. The results furthermore show that fifty-nine percent of educators did not have contact with special education personnel and that the majority of this group hold negative attitudes towards inclusive education. Forty-one percent of educators had contact with special education personnel and the majority of this group had positive attitudes towards inclusive education. Therefore, it is concluded that educators' contact with special education personnel influenced their attitudes towards inclusion of disabled learners in mainstream settings.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment or partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, 2003.
Keywords
Inclusive education--South Africa., Inclusive education--teachers' attitudes