Inclusive vocational schools in Canada and Germany. A comparison of vocational pre-service teachers′ attitudes, self-efficacy and experiences towards inclusive education

Abstract

Both Canada’s and Germany’s school systems are transitioning into inclusive education systems. This transition is also happening in vocational schools. This paper addresses the new demands that vocational teachers face, due to the introduction of inclusive education in Germany and Canada, by examining Canadian and German pre-service vocational teachers’ attitudes, self-efficacy and experiences related to inclusive education. The study identifies significantly more positive ratings in the Canadian sample across all the three scales. We conclude that the different ratings relate to different school systems, experiences with inclusion and the teacher education systems. Based on these research findings, recommendations for teacher education are discussed.

Keywords:

• Inclusion
• vocational schools
• teacher education
• attitudes
• self-efficacy