1. Introduction

There has been a growing trend toward inclusive education across the world since the Salamanca Statement on Principles (UNESCO, 1994). Including student with diverse educational needs in main stream schools is now in the center of educational policies and educational reforms (Savolainen, Engelbrecht, Nel, & Malinen, 2012).

However, ways of applying inclusive education into the policies and implementing into practices vary by country based on historical and cultural background (Savolainen et al., 2012). For instance, Japanese government has conducted educational reform toward inclusive education rapidly, and the great gaps between the concepts and actual practices are suggested (Miyoshi, 2009). In addtion, the word “inclusive education” is still understood as an issue on how to include students with disabilities in Japan (Forlin, Kawai, & Higuchi, 2015). Although there are many studies comparing several countries regarding inclusive education, a search of the literature revealed few studies which conducted comparative analysis between Japan and other countries.

Among the many education systems in the world, Finnish education system attracts people’s attention due to high academic performance in several international interventions such as the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Savolainen, 2009). Several researchers have mentioned that extensive support for students with special needs is one of important factors behind the good outcomes in Finland (Kivirauma & Ruoho, 2007; Savolainen, 2009).

The purpose of the current study is to explore the situation of Japanese inclusive education, especially from the teachers’ point of view and to compare it with that of Finland.

1.1 Inclusive education in Japan

Since the special needs education system toward inclusive education was newly established in Japan, several challenges have been pointed out. First, Miyoshi (2009) argues that actual practices in schools differ from the concepts of inclusion and the segregated education is still continued. Second, it is suggested that there is not enough support for students with disabilities both in the law and in practice to get appropriate support in regular classrooms (Nagano & Weinberg, 2012). Finally, several studies have indicated that both pre- and in-service teachers are not ready for implementing inclusive education (Forlin et al., 2015; Fujii, 2014; Ueno & Nakamura, 2011). 

1.2 Teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy toward inclusive education

Data from several studies suggest that it is necessary to have positive attitudes toward inclusive education if teachers conduct inclusive practice successfully (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002; Ryan & Gottfried, 2012). Furthermore, a number of studies suggest a positive association between teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy for inclusive practices (Malinen, Väisänen, & Savolainen, 2012; Meijer & Foster, 1988; Savolainen et al., 2012; Weisel & Dror, 2006). According to Weisel & Dror (2006), self-efficacy was the only most critical factor which affects attitudes in Israeli teachers. Even though many studies have been conducted in this vein, there is little published data on Japanese teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy toward inclusive education. Thus, the specific objectives of this study are to examine Japanese teachers attitudes toward inclusive education and self-efficacy for inclusive practices and to compare them with those of Finnish teachers.

1.3 Research questions

1) To assess whether the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised (SACIE-R) scale (Forlin, Earle, Loreman, & Sharma, 2011) and the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices (TEIP) scale (Sharma, Loreman, & Forlin, 2012) measure the same constructs in Japan and Finland.

2) To examine whether teachers’ self-efficacy for inclusive practices predicts teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education in both Japanese and Finnish data.

3) To test whether there are similarities and differences in the way teachers’ background variables predict self-efficacy and attitudes toward inclusive education in Japanese and Finnish samples. 

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