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Teacher attitudes in Italy after 40 years of inclusion
Author(s) -
Saloviita Timo,
Consegnati Simone
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of special education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1467-8578
pISSN - 0952-3383
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8578.12286
Subject(s) - mainstream , inclusion (mineral) , special education , mainstreaming , psychology , class (philosophy) , scale (ratio) , mathematics education , pedagogy , medical education , special educational needs , teacher education , medicine , political science , geography , social psychology , cartography , artificial intelligence , computer science , law
In 1977, Italy adopted a policy to fully include students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms. This study surveyed the attitudes of Italian teachers towards inclusive education 40 years after this reform. The data were collected from 153 basic school teachers using the Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusion Scale (TAIS). The results indicate that the Italian teachers had a high level of commitment to inclusive education. Approximately 90% of the respondents agreed that students with special educational needs should be educated in mainstream classrooms, and only 7% felt that they should be transferred to special education classrooms instead. To improve the quality of inclusive education, the teachers most frequently mentioned the need for more in‐service training, smaller class sizes, and additional help from support teachers and therapists in the classroom.