Opinions relatives to inclusion showed by primary and early school pre-service teachers

Abstract

Attitudes of the teachers towards the inclusion of students with special education needs are key when facing the process of educational inclusion. That is why the main aim of this paper is to explore the opinions towards inclusion shown by pre-service teachers of primary and early school education. A total of 421 pre-service teachers completed the revised Spanish version of the Opinions Relative to Integration of Students with Disabilities Scale (ORI) by Antonak & Larrivee (1995). The results show that pre-service teachers show a very positive attitude towards inclusion, however, they are not sufficiently trained to carry it out successfully. It is the women, the students of higher courses, and therefore older, and those participants with previous contact who show to be more in favor of inclusion. It is proposed that teacher training plans should be include more training and contact activities with the objective that future teachers are perceived as more prepared for the challenge of inclusion.