Attitudes of elementary school teachers towards inclusive education in Ecuador

Abstract

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion are a relevant factor in allowing inclusive educational policies to truly materialize in inclusive practices. These attitudes are influenced by different variables, such as training and experience in inclusion and the conditions and resources available to carry out educational practices. The objective of this study is to analyze the attitudes towards educational inclusion in a sample of 66 teachers from 15 educational centers in the city of Cuenca (Ecuador), using a 23-item Likert-type scale. The results show that teachers have ambiguous and undecided attitudes towards educational inclusion. Older teachers who had no experience in teaching special educational needs’ (SEN) students, had worse attitudes than younger teachers who had already taught SEN students. Furthermore, teachers in private schools showed better attitudes towards inclusion than those in public schools. These results suggest that a greater effort is needed to train teachers to deal with inclusion. In addition, public education centers should be provided with adequate resources to facilitate the possibilities of carrying out truly inclusive educational practices.