Inclusive education and stereotypes among teachers from mainstream schools

Abstract

Despite the constant efforts to implement an inclusive education system at the level of educational policies and practices, there are nevertheless a number of factors influencing the effectiveness of inclusive education. Teachers, as key actors of education through the lens of their work, are a determining factor in the success of the implementation of inclusive education and the quality of education. The way they relate to students with disabilities has a significant impact on the quality of inclusive education. Beliefs about the importance of inclusion, expectations of inclusive education outcomes and inclusive classroom practices have a higher level of occurrence for teachers with fewer stereotypes. Questioning 90 teachers, it has also been shown that the level of stereotypes is lower for teachers who have experience working with children with disabilities. These results demonstrate that the efficiency and quality of an inclusive approach depend on these psychological constructs of teachers and a good inclusive education starts from the beliefs of each teacher. Also, those teachers who have experience working with students with disabilities tend to have a low level of stereotyping, compared to teachers who do not have this type of experience, so coming into contact and the experience, predominantly positive, with students with disabilities leads to knowledge of the specifics of this area, finding resources in diversity and, ultimately, lowering the level of stereotypes that can lead to exclusion and segregation.

Keywords

• inclusive education
• stereotypes
• disabilities
• mainstream school