Attitudes towards inclusive education and organizational commitment: comparing three types of teachers in Chinese inclusive education schools

ABSTRACT

This study compared attitudes towards inclusive education and organizational commitment, as well as their relationship, amongst three types of teachers working in Chinese inclusive education schools. A total of 623 teachers, including general education teachers (n = 168), inclusive education teachers (n = 246), and resource room teachers (n = 209), from 112 elementary schools in Beijing, China, participated in this study. The results showed that the resource room teachers and inclusive education teachers had more positive attitudes and scored higher on adaptive commitments than the general education teachers did. The resource room teachers also scored higher than their colleagues on maladaptive commitments. The teachers who had received training related to inclusive education had more positive attitudes and scored higher on adaptive commitments than those who had not received such training. After controlling for age and training, in general, positive attitudes towards inclusive education positively predicted the teachers’ adaptive commitments and negatively predicted their maladaptive commitments, with different components of their attitudes demonstrating different predictive power with respect to organizational commitment across the three types of teachers. The theoretical contributions, practical implications, and limitations of the study are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes towards inclusive education
• organizational commitment
• general education teachers
• inclusive education teachers
• resource room teachers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zhengli Xie

Zhengli Xie is currently a Ph.D. candidate of Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include inclusive education, teacher education, and education for children with developmental disabilities. (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3788-9811)

Li-Fang Zhang

Li-Fang Zhang is Professor of Psychology and Education at Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include educational psychology, the academic profession, and inclusive education. (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0751-5720)