Factors affecting teacher's attitude towards inclusion in a Maldivian school / Fathimath Sahiyya

Abstract

Every child is blessed with his or her own special abilities and they are unique in their own way. Similarly, special educational needs students also have their own abilities and they should deserve as much opportunities for learning as a normal student without any special needs. However, what we see in schools are that these students not being catered properly and being ignored. It may be because of many reasons among which includes teacher's attitude towards inclusive education. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors affecting teachers' attitude towards inclusion in a Maldivian school.

A qualitative approach of collecting data was used to explore this issue, One of the schools of the Maldives was selected for this study and 10 participants were selected; five male and five female teachers. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews.

The findings of this study suggests that there are factors such as, lack of education and training as well as lack of resources influence the attitude of 1111 teachers to perceive inclusion positively or negatively. Moreover, teachers' probation year, gender and parent involvement played important roles in forming their attitude. From the findings of this study, it was evident that teachers' lack of information about inclusion and the way they perceive 11.1 inclusion was due to the above mentioned factors.

In the conclusion of the study, limitations of the research, research implications and areas for further research have been identified. This would help to inform the educational policy and practice in the Republic of Maldives.