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Inclusion of children with special needs in early childhood education : What teacher characteristics matter
Lee, Frances Lai Mui Yeung, Alexander Tracey, Danielle Barker, Katrina
Lee, Frances Lai Mui
Yeung, Alexander
Tracey, Danielle
Barker, Katrina
Abstract
Whereas the inclusion of children with special needs in regular classrooms has gained increasing advocacy, teachers’ attitudes vary. Previous studies examining teacher attitudes have focused on primary and secondary schools in the Western world, and little is known about early childhood settings in Eastern countries. This study used MANOVA to examine preschool teachers’ attitudes in Hong Kong (N = 410). Teachers reported only modest support for inclusion. Teachers with training in special education were stronger advocates of inclusion, irrespective of their professional roles (administrator or class teacher), for children with intellectual disability, or visual, hearing, and speech and language impairments. However, neither teacher training nor professional role made a significance difference to teachers’ support of including children with physical disability, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specific learning difficulty, and the gifted and talented. Implications for practice and further research are explored.
Keywords
Date
2015
Type
Journal article
Journal
Topics in Early Childhood Special Education
Book
Volume
35
Issue
2
Page Range
79-88
Article Number
ACU Department
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled