Regular teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of students with special needs into ordinary schools in Tbilisi
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The study aimed to investigate the attitudes of teachers towards the inclusion of students with special needs into regular schools in Tbilisi. Furthermore, the study examined the attitudes of the teachers in relation to ‘experience’ and ‘no experience’ in inclusive education in order to determine whether there was difference in attitudes of the teachers who had experience in teaching at schools where inclusive education had already been introduced and at schools which do not have such experience. Moreover, the study attempted to ascertain the teachers’ attitudes in relation to gender, teaching experience, teachers’ educational background and school and class size. \n300 teachers from inclusive/project schools and from other regular schools were selected to participate in this study. All schools selected were located in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi. The teachers’ opinions were obtained using a questionnaire. \nThe study also interviewed two inclusive education specialists at the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia in order to obtain information regarding the implementation of inclusive education in the country.\nThe data obtained by the questionnaire was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The data analysis indicated overall positive attitudes among teachers towards the inclusion of learners with special needs into regular schools. The results also indicated that there was no statistical difference in attitudes towards inclusion in relation to ‘experience’ and ‘no experience’ in teaching at schools with inclusive education. The high statistical difference was indicated in attitudes in relation to working experience with children with special needs. Those teachers who worked at schools which had children with special needs were more positive to inclusion. Also teachers who had children with special needs in their classes were more positive to the philosophy of inclusion. Further, the results revealed differences in attitudes in relation to gender indicating that female teachers were more positive to include children with special needs than their male colleagues. The tendency of being positive in attitude for the teachers who have less than 20 pupils in class, was also indicated in the findings of the study. The same tendency was detected among the teachers who taught in lower classes. Although the significance was not statistically important, the teachers in lower classes tended to be more positive to inclusion. The results detected the differences in attitudes in relation to the age of the teachers. Older teachers were more negative towards inclusion than younger teachers. \nAccording to the findings of the study the improvement of pre-service training and retraining of in-service teachers is required.\nInterview data analysis indicated the readiness of inclusive education promoters in Georgia to do their best in promoting inclusive education in the country. Lack of policy on inclusive education appears to be one of the main barriers to the implementation of inclusive education in Georgia.
Author: Tamar Tabakhmelashvili
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Universitetet i Oslo
OpenAlex ID: W2314323497