Regular and Special Education Mexican Teachers’ Attitudes toward School Inclusion and Disability

Year 2018, Volume: 7 Issue: 3, 421 - 430, 15.07.2018

Yanko Norberto Mezquita-hoyos Miriam Hildegare Sanchez-monroy Guadalupe Elizabeth Morales-martinez Ernesto Octavio Lopez-ramirez Maria Del Roble Reyna-gonzalez

https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.7.3.421

Abstract

The
aim of the present study was to elucidate Mexicans teachers’ attitudes toward
school inclusion and disability.  To achieve this goal, 119 regular
education and 88 special education teachers answered The Opinions Relative to
Integration of Students with Disabilities scale.  Subsequent analyses
revealed that attitudes to both groups were similar in terms of direction but
dissimilar in magnitude factor. In addition, while the attitude structure in
both samples involved three factors, these were unique to each group: Regular
education teachers (Perceived Benefits and Negative Effects inside the
Inclusive Classroom/Performance inside the Inclusive Classroom, Teaching
Ability/Education System, Performance inside the Inclusive Classroom/Education
System) and the special education teachers group (Perceived Benefits inside the
Inclusive Classroom/Education System, Teaching Ability/Performance inside the
Inclusive Classroom, Perceived Benefits and Negative Effects inside the
Inclusive Classroom/Performance inside the Inclusive Classroom). Theoretical and
applied implications of these findings are discussed in this paper.

Keywords

Attitudes, school inclusion, students with disability, regular education teacher, special education teacher

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