Attitudes towards the educational inclusion of people with Special Educational Needs in future teachers: Relationships with empathy and contact

Different studies have addressed the study of teachers' attitudes towards educational inclusion, observing different factors and variables that determine them. However, despite the fact that many studies suggest that teachers, in general, have a positive attitude towards the idea of inclusion, this would be related both to their levels of empathy and previous contact with groups with different types of disabilities. This study aims to explore the beliefs that teachers in training have about students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and analyze whether there are differences according to gender, levels of empathy and contact with people with some type of disability. For this purpose, 262 students of the University Master's Degree in Special Educational Needs and Early Intervention, aged between 24 and 50 years, of both gender. The main results indicated that only in some beliefs related to SEN were differences according to gender found, but not in the majority. In addition, significant relationships were observed between attitudes towards educational inclusion and empathy levels of the participants. Finally, differences were observed between the levels of contact and the different types of disabilities. The main results are discussed in the light of previous studies.