The attitudes of teaching staff in specialised education towards inclusion and integration

Abstract

The attitudes of teaching staff are key in developing more inclusive schools. In the Netherlands, different types of schools for special education use integration as a step towards inclusive education. The Dutch government supports this development by a policy rule that enables schools to integrate both pupils and staff. This cross-sectional study focuses on the attitudes of teaching staff towards inclusion and integration, their sense of self-efficacy and what their concerns are, and how age, teaching experience, self-efficacy and concerns relate to their attitudes. Teachers and teaching assistants (N = 82) from seven different schools participated in the study by completing a survey. The results showed that teaching staff hold neutral to moderately positive attitudes towards inclusion and integration. The self-efficacy of the teaching staff was positive, and they had neutral to moderate concerns about the integration process. This was explicitly the case when working with mixed-ability groups; that is, pupils with diverse special educational needs. The regression model showed that concerns were significantly related to attitudes: the more concerns teaching staff have, the less positive their attitudes towards inclusion and integration. Recommendations for practice and future research are suggested in the discussion.