Perception of School Teachers towards Inclusive Education System in Jodhpur City, Rajasthan, India

摘要

Many disabled children receive rehabilitation but they find it difficult to get school admission. For successful inclusion, teacher?s attitudes and their perception towards disabled children play a crucial role.Aim: To explore teacher?s perception towards inclusive education in Jodhpur city, Rajasthan, India and to describe factors contributing to this perception.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of three months. Two schools {1 Government (G) and 1 Private (P)} were selected from 30 randomly selected wards (total number of school, n=60) and four teachers were targeted randomly from each school (n=240). A 64 item scale; combination of Cochran?s 20 items STATIC Survey and Littrell?s 40-item survey with additional four demographic questions related to experience and pre-service and professional development training was used.Results: In total, 240 teachers were recruited. Of these, 172 teachers (G=49/120, P=120/120) responded; three forms were excluded due to incomplete information. Hence, 169 forms were analysed. An average score of ?attitude construct? (item 5-24) was 61 where as ?principal support construct? (Item 25-64) was 150. Most of the teachers neither had pre-service training (n=133, 79 %) nor post-professional training (n=109, 65%) for inclusive education. Teacher?s attitude construct showed negligible correlation with year of teaching certification (Rho=0.178, p-value=0.034) and experience of having disabled students in classrooms (Rho=0.198, p-value=0.010); and low positive correlation with pre-service training (Rho=0.379, p-value<0.001) and post professional training for inclusive education (Rho=0.445, p-value<0.001). Principal support construct showed negligible correlation with all four factors.Conclusion: The current study showed a tendency of positive attitude for inclusive education among teachers in urban schools of Jodhpur, India. This positive perception with professional training and incentives from school authorities can support practical implementation of inclusive education.