Regular Classroom Teachers' Attitudes towards Including Students

Regular Classroom Teachers’ Attitudes towards Including Students with Disabilities in the Regular Classroom in the United Arab Emirates Samir J. Dukmak, PhD., Assistant Professor College of Education, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT This study investigated the attitudes of regular classroom teachers towards including students with disabilities in the regular classroom. Teachers’ attitudes were also studied in relation to their gender, age and years of teaching experience. The influence of teachers’ views about the best educational placement for students with various disabilities on their attitudes towards educational inclusion was also investigated. Different statistical analyses such as ANOVA, and correlations were administered to study the relationships between predictors and outcome measures. The findings revealed that, in general, teachers showed positive attitudes towards educational inclusion but male teachers showed more positive attitudes than females did. Teachers’ years of experience were found to influence their attitudes towards educational inclusion as when the teachers’ years of experience increase their attitudes towards inclusion become less positive. Furthermore, teachers’ attitudes become the least positive when teachers view educational placement for students with intellectual disabilities and emotional and behavioral disorders to be outside the regular school, and their attitudes become less positive when they view educational placement for students with visual impairment to be outside the regular school. Study implications and limitations were highlighted. Keywords: Teachers Attitudes, Regular Classroom, Students with Disabilities, Inclusion, UAE Study background and rationale Teaching students with disability in the regular classroom is called educational inclusion as this approach, according to Pijil et al., (1997), has become a “global agenda”. Many international organizations and governments have committed themselves to inclusive education at least at the public speaking level (Mitchell, 2005). The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a fast developing country, follows the international community standards in their efforts to reform education. For example, Emirati children receive free public education through university level and free health care. Citizens employed by the Government are also eligible to receive aid from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare for sons and daughters who are under the age of 18,unmarried, or have disabilities (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2003).There is no discrimination against persons with disabilities inemployment, education, or in the provision of other state services in the UAE. The majority of public buildings provide access topersons with disabilities. In November 2006, the United Arab Emirates Federal Government passed the UAE Disability Act (Federal Law No. 29/2006) to protect the rights of people with disabilities (Al Roumi, 2008). This law stipulates that persons with disabilities enjoy an inherent right to life on an equal basis with others; recognizes that all persons are equal before the law; prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability; and ensures the right to own and inherit property, control financial affairs and protects their physical and mental integrity (Emirates News Agency, 2008). Reflecting on this, Abu Dhabi

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The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, Vol. 9, Num. 1, June 2013

Education Council (ADEC),together with the Ministry of Education in the UAE, is planning to implement the inclusive education philosophy and approach in the country. This is the main rationale to carry out the current study which deals with studying regular classroom teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and their sense of self-efficacy in teaching students with disabilities. However, teachers’ attitudes are the central point for the success of inclusion. Since the UAE is a multicultural society, the inclusive education program should include all students in the regular school, and according to Ainscow et al. (2006), the inclusive school should aim to increase the participation and broad educational achievements of all groups of students who have historically been marginalized. This has come to be called ‘the standards agenda’ which is reforming the education system to ‘drive up’ standards of attainment including workforce skill level and ultimately national competitiveness in a globalized economy (Lipman, 2004; Wolf, 2002). LITERATURE REVIEW The importance of educational inclusion The implementation of educational inclusion in regular schools, according to Mukhopadhyay et al. (2012), is a complicated process, and in order for this process to be successful, parents, teachers, students, and key community members have to be involved in its planning. Further, promoting a culture of inclusion at whole-school level is required for implementing inclusion, developing inclusive practices at classroom level, removing barriers to inclusion, educating teachers to promote inclusive schooling and identifying factors to make inclusion works (Abbott, 2006).Some experts highlight that educational inclusion has increased expectations for general educators and has sparked discussion, debate, and structural changes in the preparation process of such a program (e.g., Blanton, Griffin, Winn, &Pugach, 1997; Fisher, Frey, & Thousand, 2003; Kilgore & Griffin, 1998; Stayton & McCollum, 2002; Straw derman & Lindsey, 1995). However, the implementation and effectiveness of educational inclusion is still debatable among educational professionals (Kauffman et al., 2004;Lindsay, 2003; Turnbull et al., 2002). According to Abbott (2006), schools adopting the inclusive education approach should provide a climate of high expectation, value a broad range of abilities and achievements, remove barriers to learning, and promote a positive appreciation of the diversity of individuals. In addition, inclusion is seen by Ainscow (1999) as a reform that supports and welcomes diversity among all learners. However, the biggest challenge for education systems around the world is responding to learner diversity (Ainscow, 2007; Florian, 2008). Further, inclusive education is increasingly accepted as a unified approach to education for all (Florian, 2012). Although students with disability have the right to learn in the natural environment where their typical peers learn (Muijs & Reynolds, 2002), inclusion has many benefits such as improving students’ social growth and skills (Ainscow, 1999; Cole & Meyer, 1991; Muijs & Reynolds, 2002) and developing a “language of practice” among students (Ainscow, 1999, p. 14). Further, it helps to improve students’ behavioral skills (Lee & Odom, 1996) and increases achievement of individual education program (IEP) objectives (Brinker &Thorpe, 1984).


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Regular classroom teachers’ attitudes towards educational inclusion Attitudes of regular classroom teachers towards educational inclusion are considered a central point to include students with disabilities in regular schools. Several studies reported that regular classroom teachers do not hold supportive attitudes towards educational inclusion (e.g., Minkeet al., 1996; Reiter et al.,1998) while others (e.g. Villaet al.,1996; Ward et al.,1994) stated that regular classroom teachers hold more favorable attitudes. According to Florian (2012), many general classroom teachers in Scotland resist to include children with special needs in their classes believing that inclusion interferes with the effective education of other students. In another study conducted by Zoniou-Sideri and Vlachou (2006) on Greek teachers’ beliefs towards educational inclusion, the results revealed that regular education teachers hold a number of restrictive as well as conflicting beliefs towards disability and educational inclusion. These teachers reported that although educational inclusion is necessary as a means of improving the way ordinary school functions and reducing the marginalization and stigmatization of students with disabilities, special segregated education is important as a means of providing a secure and protective shelter to these students and as a way of covering a number of ordinary education’s deficiencies. Teachers’ attitudes towardsinclusionand their age, gender and years of teaching experience The relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and their age, gender, and years of experience was investigated in several international and regional studies such as Botswana, Italy, the United Kingdom, UAE and Saudi Arabia. For example, the Botswana study found no significant correlation between attitudes and age (Chhabra, Srivastava&Srivastava, 2010) while the Italian study found that teachers’ attitudes were significantly associated with their age (Cornoldi, Terreni, Scruggs &Mastropieri, 1998) in which younger teachers showed more positive attitudes. Regarding gender, the studies conducted in Botswana, Italy and China found no significant relationships between teachers’ attitudes and their gender (Chhabra et al., 1998;Cornoldi et al., 1998; Peng, 2000; Wan & Huang, 2005; Wei & Yuen, 2000) while the studies conducted in the UAE, UK, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia found a significant relationship between the two variables for the favor of female teachers (Algazo & Gaad, 2004;Avramidis et al., 2000; Fakolade & Adeniyi, 2009;Qaraqish, 2008). The teachers’ years of experience in relation to attitudes was only examined in the Nigerian study which found that the teachers’ years of experience had no influence on their attitudes towards inclusion (Fakolade & Adeniyi, 2009). Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and students’ type of disability The students’ types of disability can also impact teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion. In Algazo and Gaad (2004) study in the UAE, it was found that teachers were more accepting students with physical disability for inclusion than students with other disabilities such as specific learning difficulties, visual impairments, hearing impairment, behavioral difficulties and intellectual disability, on descending order. In Qaraqish (2008) study, the results found that teachers in Saudi Arabia showed positive attitudes towards including students with learning problems in the regular classroom while they showed negative attitudes towards the inclusion of students with physical and behavioral problems in classroom. Based on the above, the current research sought to answer the following questions: 1. What are the attitudes of regular classroom teachers towards inclusion? 2. Do regular classroom teachers’ gender, age, and years of experienceaffect their attitudes towards inclusion? 3. Do the teachers’ views about educational placements for students with various disabilities influence their attitudes towards inclusion in the regular classroom? 28


METHOD Participants In the selection process of schools sample, the study investigator selected all the government primary schools in all emirates (n=451) to be the school sample in the study. Out of these schools, a sample of 800 primary teachers was randomly selected to complete the study scales and questionnaires. The number of teachers who responded is 455 (56.9% response rate). Table 1shows the number of male and female teachers who participated in the study from each emirate.

Gender Male Female Total

Table 1: Teachers’ sample distribution by the Emirate and gender Emirate Dubai Abu Dhabi Sharjah Fujairah Ras El-Khaima Ajman Umm Al-Quwain 13 95 18 50 33 5 0 6 94 50 51 13 27 0 19 189 68 101 46 32 0

Total 214 241 455

Procedure The project’s investigator followed the steps below prior to the data collection process: 1. Communicating with the Ministry of Education offices in all areas of the UAE to inform them about the project and ask them to facilitate the process of entering schools and collecting data from regular classroom teachers. 2. Selecting data collectors to visit schools and collect data from teachers. 3. Selecting the regular school sample in each emirate to be visited by the data collectors for the purpose of collecting data from teachers. 4. Selecting the teachers’ sample from the primary schools. In the data collection process, the research investigator assigned the special education supervisors located in each emirate of the UAE to collect data from the teachers’ sample in the seven emirates which are: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Um Elqawein, Ajman, Ras El Khaima, and Fujairah. The main duty of the special education supervisor is to provide special education teachers in the special education classrooms and resource rooms with help and support in teaching students with learning problems. The research principal investigator met with the head of special education supervisors from each emirate for the purpose of introducing them to the research project and to train them on data collection process. The principal investigator received a written authorization from the UAE Ministry of Education to meet with the special education supervisors and to allow them to collect data from regular classroom teachers. The special education supervisors received help and support from the special education teachers in the regular schools in collecting data from teachers. Instruments The following two instruments have been developed for the purpose of collecting data from the study sample. The development process of each instrument is explained below. Adult Attitude Scale This scale has been developed by Hussien (2009) for the purpose of gathering data from teachers in this study to investigate their attitudes towards including students with disabilities in the regular schools. This scale was developed to measure three components of attitudes namely the behavioral, emotional and


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cognitive attitudes. Initially 64 items were developed and after the researchers’ review, the number of items was reduced to 45. These items were reviewed by experts in the field and as a result they were reduced to 34 items. After conducting factor analysis on the items, the number of these items became 19. Test-retest reliability for the scale was examined on a sample of 307 adults and the reliability coefficient was 0.87. The internal consistency of the scale was also studied on a sample of 587 people and Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.96. Teachers’ Opinion of the Best Placement for Students with Disabilities Checklist This checklist has been developed by Hussien (2009) specifically for this study to examine the opinion of the teachers about the best placement for students with various types of disabilities. Initially 10 items were developed, but after the researchers review and the experts review, the number of the items remained the same (10 items). Table 2 below shows the attitudes scale with its internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Table 2: Research Scale and its internal consistency and its test-retest reliability No. of Items Internal Consistency Test-retest Reliability Scales a-Coefficient N R N Regular Classroom Teachers Attitudes 19 0.96 587 0.87 307 Scale towards Inclusion Data analysis Various statistical analyses were used to answer the study questions. For example, descriptive statistics using means, standard deviations and percentages were calculated to examine teachers’ attitudes towards educational inclusion as well as to investigate the teachers’ views about the best educational placement for students with different types of disabilities. ANOVA was employed to examine the effect of teachers’ views about educational placements of students with various disabilities on their attitudes towards inclusion. Further, Po-Hoc test was computed to examine the statistical difference between teachers’ views about each educational placement and the rest of educational placements for each disability in relation to inclusion. ANOVA was also employed to investigate the effect of teachers’ gender on their attitudes towards inclusion. Moreover, Pearson Correlation was administered to study the relationship between teachers’ age and years of teaching experience, and their attitudes towards inclusion. RESULTS The purpose of the present study was to investigate the attitudes of the UAE regular classroom teachers towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in the regular school system. The impact of teachers’ age, gender and years of teaching experience on their attitudes towards inclusion was also examined in this study. In addition, the study explored the relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and their views about educational placements for students with various disabilities. Each research question and its findings are presented below. Research Question 1: What are the attitudes of regular classroom teachers towards inclusion? The attitudes of the regular classroom teachers towards including students with disabilities in the regular schools were investigated in this study. Descriptive statistics using means and standard deviations were calculated. The teachers’ attitudes were investigated in responding to 19 attitude statements using a three-Likert type scale “strongly agree”, “agree” and “do not agree”. Therefore, the participants scores on

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the scale can be ranged from 19 (least positive attitudes) to 57 (most positive attitudes) with a theoretical mean 38. Overall, the higher the scores, the more positive attitudes participants have. The results revealed that regular classroom teachers showed positive attitudes towards including students with disabilities in the regular classroom(M=72.43; SD=16.53) as the teachers’ mean was higher than that of the theoretical mean for the scale (38). Research Question 2: Do regular classroom teachers’ gender, age and years of experience affect their attitudes towards inclusion? The main effect of regular classroom teachers’ gender on their attitudes towards inclusion was investigated in this study, and the analysis of variance was performed to examine this effect. First of all, and by using mean and standard deviation scores, the results revealed that male teachers showed more supportive attitudes (M=76.22; SD=14.83) than females did (M=69.14; SD=17.24)(see table 3).These results were confirmed by one way ANOVA and the results showed that there was a statistically significant effect of teachers’ gender on attitude towards inclusion (F(1, 425)=20.37; P=.000). This means that teachers’ gender impacted their attitudes towards inclusion for students with disabilities. Table 3: Regular classroom teachers’ attitudes and gender Source Gender M SD Male 76.22 14.83 Regular Teachers Female 69.14 17.24 Total 72.43 16.53

N 203 242 445

The relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and their age and years of teaching experience were investigated using Pearson Correlation. The results revealed that teachers’ attitudes and their age were not correlated,r (345)=-.043, p=.424.This means that there was no relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and their age. However, Pearson correlation results found that teachers’ attitudes and their years of teaching experience were strongly correlated, r(401)=-.103, p