'My attitude, my responsibility‘ Investigating the attitudes and intentions of pre-service teachers toward inclusive education between teacher preparation cohorts in Melbourne and Pretoria

ABSTRACT

This study explored the attitudes and intentions of pre-service teachers towards inclusive education, across two teacher preparation institutions in Australia and South Africa. There were multiple aims to the study: among these was a need to explore the impact of contextual factors on pre-service teacher attitudes towards inclusive education, and to investigate factors that may impact on their intention to include students with additional learning needs into regular classrooms. The study utilised a published survey as a measuring instrument. One-way analyses of variance were used to establish whether statistically significant relationships existed between specific demographic variables and respondent attitudes towards inclusive education. This paper presents the findings of this investigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• pre-service teachers
• attitudes
• teacher preparation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Pearl Subban’s research interests are shaped by years as a secondary school teacher, a school leader, and an academic. She has supported classroom teachers with accommodating diversity at both junior and senior secondary levels. Consequently, her research interests include differentiated instruction, attitudinal studies, catering for diverse learners, language and literacy teaching. Currently, Pearl is involved with teaching undergraduate and post graduate units in Inclusive Teaching, English Literacy and Classroom Practice.

Prof Dikeledi Mahlo (Ded: Inclusive Education) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Inclusive Education at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Prior to joining academia she was a Foundation Phase teacher and an Inclusive Education Specialist at Mpumalanga and Gauteng Department of Education, respectively. She is passionate about young learners who experience challenges in learning and believes that through support all learners can achieve. She offers modules in Inclusive Education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, while supervising Masters and Doctoral students. Her research interests are in inclusive practices in the Foundation Phase, diversity in schools, teacher, learner and parental support in inclusive settings. She presented papers at a number of local and international conferences on teaching, learning and support in inclusive settings. She has published articles in a number of accredited local and international journals.