The political and social commitment to support and promote inclusive education over the past decades, on local, European and global levels, (Pijl, Meijer & Hegarty, 1997; UNESCO, 2009) has given rise to the need to critically reflect on the success, or otherwise, of its implementation. Among the factors identified in literature, teachers play a central role and their sentiments, beliefs, attitudes and efficacy seem to be strong predictors of success of the adoption and sustainability of inclusive practices (Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy & Hoy, 1998; Avramidis & Nor­wich, 2002; Sharma, Loreman & Forlin, 2011).

Underpinning such hypothesis is Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986), in which he affirms that an individual’s decision to act depends on a constant dynamic interplay between personal (including beliefs, self-perceptions and expectations), behavioural, and environmental factors and that individual behaviour determines and is determined by this triadic reciprocal causation. According to Bandura, fundamental and influential to human agency is the construct of self-efficacy, a cognitive factor which refers to one’s beliefs in his or her capabilities in organizing and executing the courses of action required to reach a certain goal (Bandura, 1997). This is because self-efficacy does not depend on the competencies one possesses, but on “what you believe you can do with what you have under a variety of circumstances” (Bandura, 1986, p. 37) impinging on actions through motivational, cognitive, and affective intervening processes (Bandura, 1989) such as attitudes and beliefs. These elements, as well as the generative, creative and proactive capacities of the human brain (Berthoz, 2012), represent essential components within human agency since they influence the choice of tasks, the effort one puts into the application of such tasks and the level of persistence over time (Bandura, 1986); all fundamental factors when working within complex scenarios as are inclusive classrooms and systems (Sibilio, 2014).

Research in the field of education led to the development of the construct of teacher efficacy which can be divided into two components: personal teacher efficacy, which refers to a teacher’s belief in his/her ability to bring about change in a student and general teacher efficacy which is pertinent to a teacher’s belief that external (environmental) influences can be controlled by good teaching (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). A plethora of studies have found this construct to be a stable indicator of willingness and openness to innovation; a higher likelihood to implement effective methods of instruction and persistence when faced with low-performing students (Gibson & Dembo, 1984; Tschannen Moran, Woolfolk Hoy & Hoy, 1998), among others.

Dating back to the 70s, Italy’s relatively long history of a single-track educational system geared towards embracing full inclusion (Aiello, Corona & Sibilio, 2014) provides an ideal setting for research on how inclusive education is viewed by both veteran and novice teachers. However, on a national level the construct of teacher efficacy and studies on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion are still relatively new. The only findings on the levels of teacher efficacy among Italian teachers have been provided in the two editions of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) (OECD, 2009; 2014) and minor studies carried out on a regional level. As to teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education, no research has been carried out to date.

Thus, this study was undertaken to identify any differences in the levels of teacher efficacy and how sentiments, attitudes and concerns vary between generalist or subject teachers, who are directly responsible for personalised and differentiated instruction, and Learning Support Teachers (LSTs) whose main responsibility focuses on individualised programming for students with disability or Specific Learning Difficulties.

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