Teachers' Attitudes Towards Inclusion of Special Needs Children Into Primary Level Mainstream Schools in Karachi

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of regular and special education teachers towards inclusion of special needs children into mainstream schools and to account for any differences in those perceptions. The study also aimed to investigate how these teachers' attitudes impact the implementation of inclusion into the regular education classroom. This study sampled 55 teachers from several elementary schools in Karachi. The instrument utilized for the study was the Opinions Relative to Integration of Students with Disabilities (ORI), a six-point Likert attitudinal scale, developed by Antonak and Larrivee (1995). The main finding of the study revealed that there was no significant difference in the perceptions of special education teachers and regular teachers with regards to the benefits of inclusion.