Teachers' attitudes towards working with students with special educational needs in mainstream classes in Egypt

[摘要] Recent developments in education have focused on exploring different ways ofresponding to the diverse learning needs of students. The international trend hasbeen to move towards an inclusive approach based on democratic principles ineducation, including students with special educational needs in mainstream schoolsand classrooms.Egypt, an initial signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has notescaped the prominence of inclusive education on the international educationagenda. No legislation on inclusion in schools has been promulgated in Egypt.Furthermore, information is lacking regarding teachers' attitudes towards workingwith students with special educational needs in mainstream classes, despite the factthat teacher attitude are instrumental in determining the success or failure ofinclusive education. The aim of the research, therefore, was to identify teachers'attitudes towards inclusive education.For the purpose of this study, a non-experimental quantitative research design withspecific reference to survey research was chosen. The population consisted ofteachers in five schools in Alexandria and Cairo and a questionnaire was designed.Data was analysed using the statistical programme SPSS (14.0 for Windows).Results indicate that teachers in Egypt have serious reservations about the feasibilityof accommodating students with special educational needs in their classrooms.Curriculum development, educational support, funding opportunities, as well as thetraining of teachers, need to be addressed in order to facilitate the development ofinclusive educational strategies.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University