Mainstreaming: Teachers’ Attitudes when they have no choice about the matter

Abstract

Attitudes toward mainstreaming of primary and post‐primary teachers, teachers in training, and non‐teachers in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, were surveyed soon after release of the Report of the Ministerial Review of Educational Services for the Disabled which recommends that schools be organized on the basis that every child has the right to be educated in a regular classroom; under these provisions mainstreaming becomes mandatory. The analysis revealed that the most favourable attitudes toward mainstreaming were those of non‐teachers, and that a positive relationship between teacher attitudes and previous experience of handicapped persons was accompanied by reluctance to accept handicapped children into their classes.

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Notes on contributors

David H. P. Harvey

David H. P. Harvey, PhD, is Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education, Churchill, Victoria, Australia 3842