We know from research that attitudes are essential for the social inclusion of children with disabilities. There are many factors influencing teachers' attitudes and according to the theory of planned behaviour, the subjective norm is also an important component of this (especially if we look further into behaviour). However, little research has been done on influencing the attitudes of pre-service teachers via the subjective norm. Nevertheless, it is necessary to examine the sources of influence among pre-service teachers in order to expand knowledge about the origin of negative attitudes, especially when it comes to (pre-service) teachers and pupils or students with disabilities or social inclusion. This study investigates whether the subjective norm in terms of discourse in the teacher-training program has an influence on the attitudes of pre-service teachers which led to the following two research questions: (1) Does the subjective norm, installed by the teacher educators, have an influence on the attitudes of pre-service teachers? (2) Is a process of cognitive dissonance triggered due to the subjective norm?

Methods: An quantitative design was used based on a pre- and post-test. Two studies were carried out with students of the teacher training program who were in their third year (N = 24; N = 34). The group of pre-service in the negative condition was offered a lecture containing disrespectful discourse on pupils with disabilities (negative subjective norm) and the group in the positive condition followed the lecture using the social acceptable discourse on pupils with disabilities (positive subjective norm). By manipulating certain variables within the course, an attempt was made to install a certain subjective norm. The lecturer (source of influence) was kept constant in both conditions. To install a negative subjective norm, the guest lecturer emphasized the negative discourse using various elements: language, use of the biological or deficit model and negative examples of social inclusion. Attitudes of the pre-service teachers were assessed by the Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes towards pupils with disabilities (CATCH) scale (Rosenbaum et al., 1986).

Conclusion: Results show that we can cautiously assume that the subjective norm (installed by teacher educators) has an influence on the attitudes of the pre-service teachers and that in this study cognitive dissonance was experienced in which one changed his own attitude in function of the subjective norm.

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