Attitudes of physical education teachers towards educational inclusion

Attitudes towards educational inclusion are essential in Physical Education to achieve full development of students. Therefore, the aims of this research are: (i) to analyze the attitudes of Physical Education teachers towards inclusive education; and (ii) analyze whether there are differences in those attitudes based on teachers' gender, the educational stage in which they teach, the ownership of the educational center and the teaching experience. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and comparative study was developed. Nine hundred and ninety-five Physical Education teachers from Spain participated. The Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale adapted to Spanish was used. The results show that Physical Education teachers, in general, show positive attitudes towards educational inclusion, although there are statistically significant differences in some items. Specifically, in the items related to the fact that children with special educational needs should go to special education classrooms, men show higher values than women, Secondary Education teachers show higher results than those of Primary Education and teachers who work in private centers show greater results than those of public centers. Regarding the teaching experience, there are statistically significant differences in two items, but with no relationship between them.