Until recently, special education teachers in Austria needed to have general pedagogical competences to teach children of all grades and were expected to manage heterogeneous groups in inclusive settings. Additionally, they were expected to adopt differentiated strategies to work with children with special needs. In 2013, the Law regarding the Austrian´s teaching profession changed. Student teachers now achieve a degree to teach either pupils aged 6-10 (primary education), or older pupils aged 10 – 19 (secondary education) independently from future employment. As a consequence, student teachers no longer have the option of obtaining a degree as a special education teacher. Instead, future teachers choose between teaching in primary or in secondary schools and can then select their preferred focus from various options, including inclusive education (Feuser & Maschke, 2013; Häcker & Walm, 2015; European Agency, 2015). The research project PROFIL_IP (PROFILE for Inclusive Education) presented in this paper regards motivational aspects, professional relevant traits and interests as well as factors for the choice of the focus “Inclusive Education” in primary and secondary school teacher training programs at the University College of Teacher Education in Styria (Nind, 2014). For this study design, results and tendencies should be explained first. The main objective of this quantitative part of the project is to identify cluster profiles indicating factors associated with the choice of becoming an expert in Inclusive Education (König & Seifert, 2012; Sharma, Loreman & Forlin, 2012). To identify the variables which differ between the two groups, a design with a control group was chosen. To avoid the emergence of confounding variables, the experimental group is composed of students which attend the “Inclusive Education” course, while the control group includes those who have chosen other specialisations. Job-related personality traits were measured using the BIP-6F-Scales (Bochumer Inventar zur berufsbezogenen Persönlichkeitsbeschreibung, Hossiep & Krüger, 2012), whereas the AIST-R (Allgemeiner-Interessen-Struktur-Test, Bergmann & Eder, 2005) provided data on the structure of interests. Two instruments were used to measure values: the PVQ (Portrait-Value-Questionnaire, Schmidt & al., 2007) and the FLZ-M (Questions on Life Satisfaction, Henrichs & Herschbach, 2000). Sociodemographic questions and questions regarding experiences with people with disabilities in education or in social area completed the survey. Initial data analysis has provided preliminary results. Aim of the analysis with 237 subjects was to find tendencies of differences. First results concerning the sample composition and criteria or variables relevant to match the final control sample will be presented.

Bergmann, Ch.; Eder, F. (2005). Allgemeiner Interessens-Struktur-Test mit Umwelt Struktur-Test. Göttingen: Hogrefe. European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (2015). Empowering teachers to promote inclusive education. Brüssel: European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. Feuser, G. & Maschke, T. (2013). Lehrerbildung auf dem Prüfstand. Welche Qualifikationen braucht die inklusive Schule? Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag. Häcker, T. & Walm, M. (2015). Inklusion als Entwicklung. Konsequenzen für Schule und Lehrerbildung. Kempten: Julius Klinkhardt. Henrich, G. and Herschbach, P. (2000) Questions on Life Satisfaction (FLZM). European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 16, 150-159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027//1015-5759.16.3.150 Hossiep, R. & Krüger, C. (2012). Bochumer Inventar zur berufsbezogenen Persönlichkeitsbeschreibung – 6 Faktoren. Göttingen: Hogrefe. König, J. & Seifert, A. (2012). Lehramtsstudierende erwerben pädagogisches Professionswissen. Münster: Waxmann. Nind, M. (2014). What is inclusive research? New York: Bloomsbury. Schmidt, Peter; Bamberg, Sebastian; Davidov, Eldad; Herrmann, Johannes; Schwartz, Shalom H (2007). Die Messung von Werten mit dem ”Portraits Value Questionnaire”. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 38(4):261-275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1024/0044-3514.38.4.261 Sharma, U.; Loreman, T.; Forlin, Ch. (2012). Measuring teacher efficacy to implement inclusive practices. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 12(1), 12–21.