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Actitudes docentes hacia la educación inclusiva en Cuenca

Abstract:

The definition of inclusive education underwent over the years important changes, which finally led to the denotation that education is a right for everyone. The research, presented in this paper, examined teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education in public and private elementary schools in the city of Cuenca. The methodology consisted of a cross-sectional quantitative observational survey using the questionnaire of Tárraga et al. (2013). A modified version of this questionnaire was subjected to a study population of 650 docents, selected on the basis of a stratified probabilistic method. After a preliminary analysis of the reliability and the structural scale of the questionnaire, the item scale and components of the questionnaire were reduced respectively from twenty to fifteen, and from four to three. Results revealed that teachers in general have a nonchalant, tending to favorable, attitude towards inclusive education. It was found that the more positive attitude is associated with the younger generation of docents with few years of service. No significant relationship between attitude and sex of teachers was found; but an association with the training area of the docents, their educational level, and previous experience with inclusive child education and institutional support (public or private) was found. However, given the groups were of unequal size, results presumably not generalize to a wide range of similar situations.