Conference:
ECER 2009
Format:
Paper
Session Information
Contribution
It has been argued that the hallmark of inclusive education is teachers’ positive attitudes and willingness to accept students with special educational needs (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002). A critical review of literature regarding teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion showed that much of that research has used traditional quantitative methodologies to ascertain the extent to which participants accept or reject the general concept of integration/inclusion as related to a range of disabling conditions, without much effort directed at uncovering the factors that may underlie certain attitudes. Such research has taken the ‘individual self’ as both the starting-point and the focus of analysis, resulting often in ‘psychologising’ social issues without articulating how social interaction makes psychological processes the way they are (Eiser, 1994). Therefore, it has been argued that teachers’ attitudes should be studied within a framework that recognises the influence of culture. As Eiser (1994) argues, attitudes should be viewed from a social constructivist view as context-dependent and responsive to factors within a particular sociocultural environment. The key issue here is that teachers’ attitudes may be affected by the common cultural perceptions about disability in a given context in addition to any other cultural factors. Obviously, many cultural backgrounds, including Egyptians, have their own long-standing beliefs and practices which do not define or address disability in the same way as western culture. The assumption here is that Egyptian teachers may understand disability in a different way that could affect their attitudes towards inclusion. Knowledge about the cultural understanding of disability might help in explaining the inconsistency in teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion. So, the focus of this paper is that question: What is the role of the cultural understanding of disability in shaping teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion?
Method
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 Egyptian teachers from two governorates; Cairo and Daqahlia. Also the data were coded and analysed according to the `three levels’ model advocated by Miles and Huberman (1994). This approach involves the coding of the data, identifying patterns and, finally, developing propositions.
Expected Outcomes
The results indicated that teachers’ conceptualizations of inclusion and disability are affected by the cultural context. Their perceptions are shaped by their Islamic religious beliefs about equality reflecting a socio-ethical discourse. However, there are some other beliefs that were not consistent with the ideal religious beliefs which could be foci of the broader Egyptian cultural context or a result of teachers’ personal religious beliefs.
The study argued that cultural understanding of ‘inclusion’ constrains both policy and practice in Egypt, and change here requires changing fundamental understanding of the concept of “disability”. There is a need to transcend the debate of disability as a medical or social problem to rethink “disability” and “inclusion” within a broader cultural model where all these factors could be considered. Inclusion is not one size fits all; rather it is a relativist practice that should reflect the social, cultural and moral values of any given context.
References
Avramidis, E. & Norwich, B. (2002). Mainstream teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion/integration: a review of the literature, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 17(2), 129–147. Eiser, J. R. (1994). Attitudes, Chaos and the Connectionist Mind. Oxford: Blackwell Miles, M. B. and Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, London: Sage.
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