Inclusive education is a central goal of education policy, both at European and national levels even though its realization, in many countries, has been fraught with difficulties (Armstrong et al., 2011;MacRuairc et al., 2013;Zoniou-Sideri, 2018).  As it has already been reported, inclusive education is first and foremost a political position, a broader struggle against failure and exclusion and a systemic strategy for educational reform (Graham, 2020;Slee, 2011). According to General Comment 4 adopted by CRPD (UN, 2016§6), inclusion is defined as “a process of systemic reform embodying changes and modifications in content, teaching methods, approaches, structures and strategies in education to overcome barriers with a vision serving to provide all students of the relevant age range with an equitable and participatory learning experience and environment that best corresponds to their requirements and preferences” (Graham, 2020:24). Thus, inclusive education requires new thinking and practices, changes in the policies, perceptions, values and principles in terms of schooling, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment (Vlachou, 2004).

Committed educational leaders introduce and embed the culture, policies and practices to achieve inclusive education at all levels (Graham, 2020), “based upon alternative views of the world and the nature and form of schooling that will build that world” (Slee, 2011:25). Acceptance, respect, listening, clarifying language, being comfortable with diversity, and ambiguity and articulating are all prerequisites of inclusive leadership (MacRuairc et al., 2013). Educational leadership in general, and school-principals in particular, are key factors in promoting more inclusive schooling and learning communities for all students including disabled students (Bailey, 2004;Carrington, 1999). They establish and influence school culture (Carrington, 1999), teachers’ attitudes and beliefs (Hess & Zamir, 2016), and therefore, play an important role in implementing and promoting inclusive education (Irvine et al., 2010).

School principals’ knowledge of educational processes is linked to their beliefs about inclusive education (Pregot, 2020), while their beliefs and attitudes towards inclusion are significantly associated with the promotion of more inclusive practices (Workman, 2016).  Attitudes constitute the readiness for action containing cognitive-emotional-behavioral elements (Savolainen et al., 2012), and are influenced by values and beliefs (Bailey, 2004;Schwartz, 2012). According to one set of studies, beliefs are influenced by individuals’ value system, since values are numerous, and tend to be universal and enduring (Bailey, 2004). According to another set of studies, however, individuals’ belief system is at the core (Sergiovanni & Starratt, 1983), and consists of assumptions and understandings held by the individuals in context. Belief system influence the value system, and by extension the latter influence the norms and standards.

Values, knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes are interrelated in such complex way(s) that often render it difficult to identify the predictive value of each variable and the influence it exerts to the other variables such as practices. To the best of our knowledge, there is no prior research that examines the intercorrelations among values, knowledge, beliefs, practices, and attitudes of school principals regarding the inclusion of disabled students and/or students with special education needs in primary and secondary education.  In light of the above, this study, which is part of a doctoral study, focuses on exploring the intercorrelations, and the predictability of correlations among the aforementioned variables regarding the education of disabled students and/or students with s.e.n. in Greek regular schools. Specifically, it aims to examine the following three questions:

a)     Do principals’ values, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and practices regarding inclusive education show statistically significant differences depending on the demographic and professional information?

b)     To what extent the investigated variables (values, beliefs, knowledge and practices) predict attitudes?

c)     To what extent the investigated variables (values, beliefs, attitudes and knowledge) predict practices?

This research adopts a constructivist and transformative worldview approach, combining the interpretation and understanding of the principals’ values, beliefs, attitudes and knowledge, with a political agenda to reshape the status quo (current teaching practices/curriculum), confronting injustice and social oppression (Mertens, 2010), and improving the education of disabled students and/or students with s.e.n., and inclusive education (Creswell, 2014). For this research’s purpose, three survey instruments have been selected to measure the above variables: a) the “Principals' Knowledge of Fundamental and Current Issues in Special Education” (PKISE), by Wakeman et al., (2006), which examines principals’ knowledge (22 statements), beliefs (7 statements), and practices (6 statements), regarding special and inclusive education; b) the "Portrait Values Questionnaire” (PVQ), by Schwartz et al., (2001), which focuses on the examination of principals’ goals, aspirations or desires and thus, implies the degree of importance of a value based on Schwartz’s theory of values (1992;2010;2012) (40 statements), and c) the “Principals’ Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education” (PATIE) by Bailey (2004), which aims to investigate their attitudes towards inclusive education (29 statements). The resulting questionnaire consists of the aforementioned units and their statements, plus a unit that concerns the demographic and professional information (19 statements), with which the completion of the questionnaire begins. The above-mentioned instruments (PKISE/PVQ/PATIE) were all adapted and validated for the Greek context. The instrument was electronically administered and validated for a total sample of 582 school principals from 334 primary and 248 secondary Greek schools. The sample was extracted with a two-stage stratified sampling procedure from the updated lists of primary and secondary schools with “resource room units”, as provided by the Department of Special Education of the Greek Ministry of Education. PVQ have been previously adapted for and used in the Greek context by Pavlopoulos (2014). Thus, one confirmatory factor analysis was conducted for PVQ, and two exploratory factor analyses were conducted for PKISE and PATIE respectively. The validated instruments feature high reliability scores: the “PKISE” has Cronbach a= .943; the "PVQ", has a= .844 (10 values), a= .831 (4 higher-order values); and PATIE accordingly a= .851.

The present research is in the phase of the data analysis. Given that there are many variables that influence attitudes and by extension influence practices regarding inclusive education, the analysis of the quantitative data is expected to depict the extent to which values, beliefs and knowledge influence attitudes. Furthermore, it is expected to point out the dependent variable(s) (values, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, practices), and highlight whether or not principals’ values influence their beliefs and knowledge regarding inclusive education, or vice versa. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their implications in capturing principals’ values, beliefs, attitudes and knowledge, filling in a gap in international literature regarding studies that combine educational leadership and the principles and practices of inclusive education. Simultaneously, this research aspires to strengthen the respective research field and contribute to the international quest for understanding the factors influencing the implementation of more inclusive practices by focusing on the role of key stakeholders in the schooling community. Thus, focusing on the role of principals and exploring their values, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and practices regarding inclusive education can yield useful insights and inform respective policies and practices as well as to raise awareness about the importance of educational leadership in implementing inclusive education.

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