Inclusive education in Luxembourg: implicit and explicit attitudes toward inclusion and students with special educational needs

ABSTRACT

The aim of the current study was to investigate attitudes of Luxemburgish adults toward students with special educational needs (SEN) and their inclusion into mainstream schools. Positive attitudes can facilitate inclusion, furthering the acceptance of students with SEN. Implicit and explicit attitudes may have differential impact on behaviour toward students with SEN, however, to date, there is little research combining explicit and implicit attitudes measurement tools. Participants (N = 161) completed an evaluative priming task, the Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education in the Population questionnaire as well as the German version of the Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale. Results show that participants expressed positive attitudes toward inclusive education in general. Participantś implicit attitudes toward students with differing types of SEN varied, with neutral attitudes toward students with learning difficulties and negative attitudes toward students with challenging behaviour. In addition, participantś explicit attitudes toward the inclusion of students with learning difficulties or challenging behaviour in mainstream classrooms were negative. In sum, although people may support the general idea of inclusion, when asked about their attitudes toward students with specific types of SEN, and the inclusion of these students in mainstream schools, participantś attitudes were rather negative. The implications of these findings for the inclusion and acceptance of students with SEN in education and society are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Special educational needs
• implicit attitudes
• explicit attitudes
• inclusion
• challenging behaviour
• learning difficulties

Acknowledgment

The study was funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxembourg, grant number C14/SC/7964914/INCLUS. We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Sabine Krolak-Schwerdt for her constructive comments during the conceptualisation of this study. Additionally, we would like to thank Ms. Katia Carvalho, Ms. Sarah Dick, Ms. Julia Federspiel, M. Paul Hommel and Ms. Mirjam Kretschmer for their assistance in collecting the data.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mireille Krischler is currently a PhD student at University of Luxembourg. Her research focuses on conditions of inclusive education. She is particularly interested in the assessment of attitudes toward students with special educational needs and inclusion by combining different implicit and explicit methods of measurement.

Ineke Pit-ten Cate studied experimental Psychology and Pedagogy in the Netherlands and was awarded her PhD by the University of Southampton. She has worked clinically and academically in different international settings with a particular focus on the psychosocial (dys)function of children with disabilities and their families. Currently she is involved in teaching and research, focusing on the attitudes and diagnostic competence of teachers, especially in consideration of challenges associated with a heterogeneous student population.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxembourg, [grant number C14/SC/7964914/INCLUS].