Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes of general education teachers towards educating special needs students in inclusive classrooms in the Egyptian private schools. In addition, it seeks to investigate the factors that might affect their views and attitudes towards inclusive education. The study was conducted at different private schools in Cairo. The selected participants were ten general education teachers and the criteria of choosing them was based on their involvement in inclusive practices or teaching special needs students in their classrooms. The methodology utilized was the qualitative approach through conducting one to one semi structured interviews with the teachers. The findings of this study showed that most of the teachers demonstrated positive attitudes toward including special needs students in their classrooms. While two teachers out of ten held negative attitudes toward inclusion. Furthermore, teachers were found to hold more positive attitudes when the number of students with special needs is small in each class and their cases are not severe. In addition, the results indicated that (i) school administration support, (ii) professional development and knowledge, (iii) severity of the disabilities, and teacher parent collaboration were common themes developed among the teachers to indicate the factors that affected their attitudes toward inclusion.
Author Information
Asar Ismail, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Paper Information
Conference: ECE2018
Stream: Education & Difference: Gifted Education, Special Education, Learning Difficulties & Disability
This paper is part of the ECE2018 Conference Proceedings (View)
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