Understanding student teachers’ attitiudes to inclusive education: an application of the theory of planned behaviour

Abstract

Inclusive Education (IE) can be defined as providing children with the opportunity to learn alongside their peers within their appropriate school community and be treated as a contributing individual to the community (Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, 2017). In Saskatchewan the aim is to incorporate all children into the mainstream educational system. Inclusive policies within school systems have placed extra pressure on teachers to implement these policies. Educators’ issues with IE are often the result of severity of disability and practical concerns with implementation in the classroom (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002; Burke & Sutherland, 2004). The purpose of the current study was to examine student teachers’ attitudes towards IE utilizing the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Participants for this study were student from the University of Regina Psychology Participant Pool who were registered with the Faculty of Education or are intending to pursue a career in Education. Participants completed the online questionnaire assessing their current knowledge of IE, personal experiences with children with exceptionalities, and TPB measures. Once data collection was complete, two hierarchical multiple regressions were run using direct and indirect measures for attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control to predict behavioural intention. By understanding student teachers’ attitudes towards IE, their concerns can be addressed at an early stage and appropriate knowledge for implementation can be provided.