Attitude towards inclusive education: the perspective of Slovenian preschool and primary school teachers

The paper is built on premises that teachers' attitude is one of the most important factors of implementing inclusive education and it focuses on preschool and primary school teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education. The purpose of the study was to establish what attitude Slovenian preschool and primary school teachers hold towards inclusion. The attitude was defined on three levels - the cognitive, affective and behavioural. Data were gathered with moderately adapted MATIES questionnaire and processed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results show that both preschool and primary school teachers are in favour of inclusion on all three levels. However, additional analyses indicated that compared to primary school teachers, preschool teachers express more positive attitude on cognitive level. Moreover, the study also showed that the previous work experiences with children with SEN do not relate to more positive attitude towards inclusion, whereas in-service trainings for SEN predominantly result in more positive attitude towards inclusion.