Educator Attitude and Servant Leadership: A Positive Combination for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between educator attitude towards students with disabilities and their self-perception of servant leadership characteristics related to teaching students with mild to moderate disabilities included in the general education classroom. Using the Attitude Towards Teaching All Students Scale (ATTAS-mm) combined with the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ), a sampling frame of 166 secondary educators who teach students with mild to moderate disabilities in the general education setting within one southeastern Virginia school division were surveyed. While a small positive correlation existed between servant leadership and educator attitude as evidenced by the Pearson r scores ranging from .250 to .282, multiple regression determined that three of the five servant leadership factors (i.e., emotional healing; B = .672, wisdom; B = .571, and organizational stewardship; B = .312) could reliably predict educator attitude, thus indicating that higher perceived levels of servant leadership combined with greater positive educator attitudes is a winning combination for students with mild to moderate disabilities.