Session Information
04 SES 04 A, Attitudes of Different Groups
Paper Session
Contribution
Introduction
The inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) in regular education became an important goal for many counties in the last decades (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, 2009). Internationally, this resulted in new education policies which aim to include students with various categories of special educational needs in regular schools (Nakken & Pijl, 2002). Despite the changes on policy level, there seems to be a stagnation to make schools more inclusive (Ferguson, 2008; Vislie, 2003). Hence, researchers argued what causes difficulties to make inclusion happen. Several aspects are addressed to be important in this, like materials, recourses and curriculum (Hegarty 1994; Meijer 2003; Norwich 1994). Besides those conditional aspects it is argued that attitudes of directly involved (i.e. teachers, parents and students) towards the education of students with SEN in regular schools are important to make inclusive education possible.
Previous research findings showed that attitudes are influenced by several aspects, like gender, age of parents, experience with inclusion, teaching experience of teachers, teacher training and students’ type of disability (de Boer, Pijl, Minnaert, 2009; in press). Many researchers included the latter as a variable which influences peoples attitudes. However, in those studies little attention has been paid to the types of SEN ‘internalized and externalized behavior problems’. Because behavior problems (i.e. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD and Autistic Spectrum Syndrome, ASS) are most commonly diagnosed at children worldwide, it seems important to create more understanding in attitudes towards the inclusion of students with those types of SEN.
This study aims at the following research questions:
1) What attitudes do regular primary school teachers, parents and
students hold towards the inclusion of students with special educational
needs in regular schools?
2) To what extent do their attitudes differ per type of special educational
needs?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
De Boer, A.A., Pijl, S.J. & Minnaert, A.E.M.G. (2010). Attitudes of parents towards inclusive education: a review of the literature, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 25(2), 165-181. De Boer, A.A., Pijl, S.J. & Minnaert, A.E.M.G. (in press). Attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education: a review of the literature, International Journal of Inclusive Education. European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (2009). Key Principles for Promoting Quality in Inclusive Education – Recommendations for Policy Makers. Eagly, A. H. & Chaiken, S. (1993). The Nature of Attitudes. In A. H. Eagly & S. Chaiken (Eds.), The psychology of attitudes (First ed., pp. 1-21). Fort Worth: Hartcourt Brace College Publishers. Hegarty, S. 1994. Integration and the teacher. In: New perspectives in special education, ed. C.J.W. Meijer, S.J. Pijl, and S. Hegarty, 125–31. London: Routledge. Ferguson, D. L. (2008) ‘International trends in inclusive education: the continuing challenge to teach one and everyone. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 23 (2), 109–20. Meijer, C.J.W. 2003. Special needs education across Europe. Middelfart: European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. Norwich, B. 1994. The relationship between attitudes to the integration of children with special educational needs and wider socio-political views: A US-English comparison.European Journal of Special Needs Education, 9, 91–106. Snijders, T. & Bosker, R. (1999). Multilevel analysis, an introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling, Sage Publications. Triandis, H.C. 1971. Attitude measurement and methodology. In Attitudes and attitude change, ed. H.C. Triandis, 26–59. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Vislie, L. (2003) ‘From integration to inclusion: focusing global trends and changes in the western European societies. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 18(1), 17-35.
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