literature review on teachers' attitude

MINI REVIEW article

A review of teachers' sentiments and attitudes in inclusive education in china.

• 1 The Engineering Technical College of Chengdu University of Technology, Leshan, China
• 2 Department of Student Affairs, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan, China

Students should receive appropriate and comprehensive educational opportunities regardless of their ethnicity, gender, and even probable disabilities or exceptionalities. For this purpose, governments and educational boards have agreed to investigate the concept of inclusive education as a new paradigm where students can benefit from materials and classroom environment whether they are ordinary students or students with special needs. Chinese educational government has also adopted inclusive education within its pedagogic program since the middle of the 1990s. In this regard, some well-known researchers highlighted the impact of teachers' attitudes, sentiments, and concerns in inclusive education as a driving force toward student support and rapport. Moreover, the cultural background has also been emphasized in studies of inclusive education. Hence, it is necessary to employ the proposed and standardized attitude, sentiment, and concern scales, as well as the translated version to measure the factors affecting the proper implementation of inclusive pedagogy. The present study was an attempt to review related studies on teachers' attitudes and sentiments, particularly in China. Findings suggest that cultural differences might not necessarily contribute to the successful implementation of inclusive programs; however, pre-service or in-service teachers have demonstrated that higher levels of sentiment (efficacy), as well as positive attitude, can lead to the efficient provision of materials and building a supportive classroom environment for ordinary students and more importantly student with special needs.

Introduction

Educators and educational systems have always attempted to provide equal and appropriate education to students with special needs. Nevertheless, according to Calgary Board of Health (2008) , the concept of inclusion in education started to refer to providing opportunities to all students together, particularly those who belong to minorities, come from poor families, and are vulnerable. Besides, Loreman (1999) and Andrews and Lupart (2000) believed that educating all students impartially and within a shared instructive context is the key to inclusive education.

Loreman et al. (2008) asserted that mutual acceptance among students is regarded as a crucial aspect of inclusion classrooms where students can learn more and experience improved self-efficacy and motivation. Consequently, along with significant educational success among students with exceptionalities, inclusion education has also helped ordinary students improve academically ( Demeris et al., 2008 ).

Teachers' sentiments regarding the special educational needs for target students as well as teachers' positive attitude toward inclusion in education can lead to a better understanding of students' special conditions and provision of more appropriate support ( Burke and Sutherland, 2004 ). Hobbs and Westling (1998) asserted that appropriate training as well as positive experiences with exceptional students can result in teachers' positive attitudes toward inclusion.

In addition, Forlin (2008) argued that it is imperative to design and modify teacher education programs consistent with the advent of the educational inclusion paradigm. For instance, according to Article 24 proposed by United Nation (2006) , new teacher training courses should focus on the implementation of proper techniques, materials, and communication strategies tailored at supporting all students, even those with disabilities or special needs.

Inclusion in education has been introduced and developed around the globe for the last 4 decades. Deng and Harris (2008) proposed that inclusion programs emerged in the 1980s in China with a focus on providing mandatory schooling for students with disabilities. Moreover, Yan and Deng (2018) asserted that the Chinese Department of Education introduced the Action Plan for Implementing Inclusive Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools in 2013. Consequently, it is necessary to conduct related studies to determine factors influencing and the role of teachers' attitudes and sentiment toward inclusion education. Hence, the present study aimed at investigating previous studies on inclusion in China to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as to promote them within the Chinese context.

Theoretical Background

Effective and constant education should be delivered to every child in the community. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, economic status, and disabilities, the students should have the right to be provided with equal schooling ( Ainscow et al., 2011 ). Therefore, the concept of inclusion was proposed as an approach to engage students with disabilities in learning tasks within the classroom setting. As Foreman (2001) argued, inclusive education refers to the collaboration of such students with their classmates (normal students or students with disabilities) in ordinary schools.

Sharma et al. (2015) conducted a seminal study on influential factors in the implementation of inclusion education. They reported that the following factors can affect inclusion programs: context policies, proper employment of resources, social and cultural necessities, family's roles, and revisiting and adapting school activities. Furthermore, some researchers asserted that teacher-related factors can play a significant role in the proper adaptation of inclusion education, e.g., teachers' self-efficacy, concerns, and attitudes ( Avramidis and Norwich, 2002 ; Loreman et al., 2014 ; Specht, 2016 ) as well as demographic characteristics, type of disability, and teacher-training courses ( De Boer et al., 2011 ).

In an attempt to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure teachers' sentiment, attitudes, and concerns in the implementation of inclusive education, Loreman et al. (2007) conducted a seminal study and proposed a 19-item scale regarding the perception of teachers about inclusion programs accordingly, i.e., the sentiments, attitudes, and concerns about inclusive education (SACIE) scale. They further proposed that teachers' sentiment can help them deal with classes with students who have disabilities, teachers' attitude is also directly related to the successful implementation of teaching approaches, and finally, teachers' concern stems from their uncertainty about their capabilities and preparedness for inclusion schools.

Jordan et al. (2009) contended that teachers' sentiments and attitudes are the predictors of successful inclusion programs. In addition, Forlin et al. (2009) concluded that the implementation of inclusive pedagogy has led to the development and promotion of more positive attitudes and sentiment as well as reduced concerns among educators.

Following the global movement toward inclusive education and, particularly, the UNESCO declaration on Education for ALL (1990), the Chinese government and educational policies have highlighted the need for the implementation of inclusion pedagogy ( Liu and Jiang, 2008 ). More specifically, Deng and Poon-McBrayer (2004) contended that the initial measures concerning inclusion education in China were established in 1994 after the establishment of the learning in the regular classroom (LRC) program. Consequently, it is essential to design pre-service courses for teachers to raise awareness of features of inclusive education in the Chinese context. The present study aimed to review related studies and key empirical findings are introduced in the following section.

Empirical Studies

There is a great body of research on inclusion programs as well as the effectiveness of teachers' attitudes and sentiment (efficacy) in this regard. We will discuss related studies in terms of cultural diversity and teachers' characteristics.

Inclusive Education Across Cultures

According to Webber and Lupart (2011) , culture is believed to have an impact on inclusive education in different international contexts. For instance, Sharma et al. (2008) conducted a multi-cultural study highlighting educators' attitudes and concerns as well as sentiment about people with disabilities. They investigated 603 undergraduate teacher training programs (Australia = 245; Hong Kong of China = 182; Canada = 58; Singapore = 93). Then, the authors evaluated teachers' attitudes using attitudes toward inclusive education scale (ATIES), developed by Wilczenski (1992) . This scale consists of 16 items measuring participants' attitudes toward different aspects of inclusion: social, physical, academic, and behavioral. As a result, it was concluded that teacher training programs can lead to a significant change in pre-service students' attitudes in all contexts except Singapore.

Moreover, findings of Malinen's 2013 Ph.D. dissertation with regard to Chinese, Finnish, and South African pre-service and in-service teachers demonstrated that teachers' sentiment (efficacy) can be categorized as efficacy in collaboration, efficacy in inclusive instruction, and efficacy in managing behaviors. They also reported that these three factors are significantly correlated. Furthermore, all the participants from different countries indicated that there is a significant relationship between the prior experience of teaching students with special needs and high levels of sentiment in inclusive education.

Forlin et al. (2009) conducted a study on 603 pre-service teachers from Australia ( n = 270), Singapore ( n = 93), Canada ( n = 58), and Hong Kong of China ( n = 182) teachers. They concluded that there is no significant difference between these participants from different cultural backgrounds in terms of inclusive education attitudes, sentiment, and concerns.

Eventually, Murdaca et al. (2016) investigated four hundred Italian teachers' attitudes, sentiments, and concerns in inclusive education using the SACIE-R scale (proposed by Forlin et al., 2011 ). They confirmed that findings are consistent with other related researches, including the original study. However, the authors had to remove 4 items from the original scale due to the goodness of fit indices for the Italian context.

Attitudes, Sentiments, and Other Teacher-Related Factors

Li et al. (2016) attempted to investigate pre-service teachers' attitudes, sentiment, and concern regarding inclusion education. For this purpose, they assessed 424 freshman and sophomore Chinese students using the simplified Chinese version of the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale Revised (SCACIE-R) (proposed by Forlin et al., 2011 ). Li et al. (2016) concluded that there is a significant relationship between pre-service teachers' experience with people with disabilities and their attitudes and sentiment about inclusive education. They further reported that students' self-confidence has an influence, yet insignificant, on their belief regarding the implementation of inclusive education.

It is worth noting that Malinen (2013) reported the different findings among pre-service teachers form different countries. For example, Chinese students demonstrated that school patterns in which they choose to work are associated with their self-efficacy, while students in Finland reported that training is positively related to self-efficacy. Besides, male teachers in Finland showed higher capabilities of dealing with students' unfavorable behavior in the classroom. Finally, older participants could score higher in terms of self-efficacy. In addition, Malinen and Savolainen (2008) investigated a sample of 523 Chinese university students by using questionnaire on their perception of the inclusion of children with disabilities and those students with special needs were assigned into regular classrooms. Their study indicated that (a) the participants' average attitude toward inclusion was slightly negative; (b) Social justice, Meeting the special needs of the pupils with severe disabilities, Quality of education and Teachers' competence, were extracted; (c) the most important background variable that explained the attitudes was the participants' major subject in the University; and (d) the ratings for the best educational environment for a student with a disability varied based on different types and levels of disability.

Forlin et al. (2009) concluded that teachers' age might not play a significant role in their attitudes toward inclusive education. Meanwhile, age could have an effect on teachers' previous knowledge in terms of inclusion. In addition, they claimed that gender also does not make significant changes in teachers' sentiment or concern.

From the discussion aforementioned, it can be seen that following the concept of mainstream education in western societies, China has recently started to embrace inclusive education through the learning in regular classrooms (LRC) model. It was established by the Chinese ministry of education in 1994. As Feng (2010) argued, LRC includes the implementation of inclusive education to benefit students with special needs along with ordinary students in an environment of mutual acceptance. Since learning is a dynamic process associated with learners' characteristics, there is always the need for ongoing assessment of teaching students for the purpose of developing required skills and capabilities accordingly.

Implications and Suggestions for Future Research

Deng and Poon-McBrayer (2012) claimed that a lack of knowledge and experience among teachers who are supposed to work with students with special needs is inevitable. Such lack of awareness can lead to poor instruction quality, particularly in inclusive education programs. Besides, Xiao (2007) asserted that teachers may not have adequate expertise and enough time to get involved with students with disabilities in the classroom. Therefore, it seems necessary to design and implement teacher education courses or programs on how to teach effectively in a mainstream and inclusive education context. It could also include short-term pre-service and in-service courses to improve teachers' perception and skills in this regard.

Previous cross-cultural studies have concluded that the majority of pre-service teachers show similar trends concerning the impact of attitudes and sentiment on inclusive education practices. For instance, Forlin et al. (2009) concluded that pre-service teachers from Australia, Singapore, Canada, and Hong Kong of China follow similar trends in promoting positive attitudes and sentiment toward inclusive education. Nevertheless, it is recommended to conduct further cross-cultural and also longitudinal studies in order to explore new aspects of teacher training programs and the impact of teachers' characteristics in the successful practice of inclusive education.

By way of conclusion, the current study mainly explored teachers' attitudes and sentiments, particularly in the educational context of China. Besides, the findings suggest that cultural differences might not necessarily contribute to the successful implementation of inclusive programs; however, pre-service or in-service teachers have demonstrated that higher levels of sentiment (efficacy), as well as positive attitude, can lead to the efficient provision of materials and building a supportive classroom environment for ordinary students and more importantly student with special needs. Pre-service teachers should be provided with intership that can help them to gain the working experience that cannot be acquired from their own textbooks. Only in this doing so can novice teachers enhance their instruction quality.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

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Keywords: teacher training, inclusive education, attitude, sentiment, Chinese educational government, supportive classroom environment

Citation: Yang M and Yu C (2021) A Review of Teachers' Sentiments and Attitudes in Inclusive Education in China. Front. Psychol. 12:760115. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.760115

Received: 17 August 2021; Accepted: 09 September 2021; Published: 11 October 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Yang and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Chao Yu, yc8307@ahut.edu.cn

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Understanding teachers’ attitude towards computer technology integration in education: A review of literature

• Published: 18 April 2019
• Volume 24 , pages 3041–3052, ( 2019 )

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• Joseph Njiku   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4257-5537 1 ,
• Jean Francois Maniraho 1 &
• Védaste Mutarutinya 1  

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This article presents an exploration of teachers’ attitude towards technology survey scales from multiple studies. It presents a review of literature on the development of survey scales. Eleven survey scales were collected and assessed on the kind of constructs used to define attitude as well as the content representativeness items carry in explaining the construct. Enjoyment, confidence, anxiety and teachers position towards technology integration were the most common constructs. The number and span of items across constructs differed depending on the focus of the study with some having very few items. We concluded that appropriate construct uses as guided by previous research, and representativeness items carry for each construct are important for effective interpretation and operationalization of attitude as a construct.

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Njiku, J., Maniraho, J.F. & Mutarutinya, V. Understanding teachers’ attitude towards computer technology integration in education: A review of literature. Educ Inf Technol 24 , 3041–3052 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09917-z

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6 Department of Communication Skills, Ethics and Psychology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

Sofija Colovic

Branimir radmanovic.

7 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

Marija Sekulic

8 Department of Hygiene and Ecology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

Ognjen Djordjevic

9 Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

Jovan Niciforovic

10 Department of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjacka Banja, University of Kragujevac, Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia

Ivana Simic Vukomanovic

Katarina janicijevic, snezana radovanovic, associated data.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

The aims of our study are related to examining the relevance of teachers' attitudes toward the implementation of inclusive education. In addition, its subject is related to the implications on inclusive education policies, limitations of the existing study along with the recommendations for our future research endeavors.

The research is a cross-sectional study type. The sample included 64 primary school teachers in the lower grades of primary school (grades 1–4), selected by using simple random sampling, in three primary schools on the territory of Belgrade, Serbia in 2021 (26, 17, and 21 primary school teachers). The Questionnaire for Teachers, which was used as a research instrument, was taken from the Master's Thesis Studen Rajke, which was part of the project “Education for the Knowledge Society” at the Institute for Educational Research in Belgrade. Dependent variables measured in the study referred to the attitudes of primary school teachers toward inclusive education. Categorical variables are represented as frequencies and the Chi-square test was used to determine if a distribution of observed frequencies differed from the expected frequencies.

One in three teachers (32.8%) thought that inclusion was useful for children with disabilities (29.7%), of them thought that schools did not have the conditions for inclusive education, whereas one in four teachers (25.0%) believed that inclusion was not good. No statistically significant differences were found in the attitudes of professors, when observed in terms of their gender, age and length of service.

Investing more resources and time in developing and implementing special education policies can promote successful inclusive education.

Introduction

Inclusive education means quality education for all students, respecting their diversity in terms of educational needs (UNESCO, 2009 ). The inclusion of students with disabilities in typical schools with their peers is part of the global human rights movement, which refers to the possibility that students with disabilities can fully participate in all activities that make up modern society (Rajšli-Tokoš, 2020 ).

The history of inclusive education dates back since the World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality (Salamanka, Spain, 7–10 June 1944), which enabled substantial progress, simultaneously opening room for improvement and introducing a more dynamic approach of schools toward all children, irregardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, language or other state of mind, as well as the educational system oriented toward the students with various educational needs, by means of which the inclusive education platform was eventually established (United Nations Educational, 1994 ). The necessity of implementing inclusive education was confirmed at the UNESCO World Conference on Special Needs Education (UNESCO, 2003 ). The principles of inclusive education were presented for the second time at the World Education Forum meeting in Dakar in the year of 2000 (The Dakar Framework for Action, 2000 ), and finally, they were confirmed in the Millennium Declaration (Bhaskara, 2003 ). A few years later, at the Second European Ministerial Conference, which took place in Malaga, Spain, the Council of Europe (Council of Europe, 2003 ) declared that education is the fundamental means enabling children with disabilities to successfully integrate into the community and it established the legal framework needed for including special needs children in regular schools by providing necessary support and thus promoting the ways in which their education could be improved (Council of Europe, 2006 ).

There is a large number of studies which indicated that inclusive education has its own advantages as regards cognitive, social and affective development of students. They also show that inclusive education, compared to segregated education, offers more opportunities to develop social, emotional, and behavioral skills not only of children who need additional support, but also of children of typical development in terms of their enhancing the level of understanding and acceptance of diversity (Magyar et al., 2020 ; Molina Roldán et al., 2021 ; van Kessel et al., 2021 ). The results of various research studies have shown that students without difficulties have positive attitudes, positive beliefs, and express readiness when it comes to accepting students with disabilities along with having a positive attitude toward joint teaching with them, which is a very important factor for successful inclusion (Radisavljevic-Janic et al., 2018 ; Alnahdi and Schwab, 2021 ).

Additionally, it was confirmed that teachers were the key actors in the implementation of inclusive education and that their positive attitudes played a significant role in the successful administration of this educational transformation (De Boer et al., 2011 ). However, whereas the effects of teachers' attitudes toward the application of inclusion policies have been widely recognized, there is not a significant number of studies examining the factors shaping such attitudes.

Only a few studies revealed the effects of factors (age, gender, length of service (years), training, experience with inclusive education and type of student disability) on the attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education (Avramidis and Norwich, 2002 ; Alghazo et al., 2003 ; Forlin et al., 2009 ; Woodcock, 2013 ).

In this context, our study's primary goal is to examine attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education, sociodemographic factors affecting such attitudes along with the factors stated by teachers as being alleviating/aggravating factors for the inclusion process in education, which could be perceived as excellent basis for creating specialized programs and measures for the purpose of enhancing the inclusive education.

Materials and Methods

Study design.

The research is a cross-sectional study type.

The Study Participants

The sample included 64 primary school teachers in the lower grades of primary school (grades 1–4), employed in three primary schools in the territory of Belgrade, Serbia, who were selected by using simple random sampling (26, 17, and 21 primary school teachers of both gender, with the average age of 43.1 ± 8.4 years). Data collection was realized in the second term of school year 2020/21, by means of a teacher survey. The school principals gave their consent to administering such teacher surveys or questionnaires.

The Procedure for Data Acquisition

Teacher survey questionnaires were administered after delivering detailed written instructions which had been distributed in schools. Teacher survey questionnaires were voluntarily completed, and self-administered with respondents filling in their own answers. Before the start of the research, the respondents were acquainted with the goal and procedure of the research and gave their written consent to participate in the study. For the purpose of ensuring objectiveness of the results and capturing accurate data, during the procedure for data acquisition, researchers were leading teachers during the process of filling in their own answers in accordance with the methodically anticipated protocol. Before underlying the aims of the research and delivering instructions for the purpose of filling in the questionnaires given, the respondents were told that the data obtained in such a manner were going to be used for scientific purposes only, that all the answers were highly classified and that the analysis of data was going to be performed collectively, not individually. After placing an emphasis on the fact that filling in the questionnaires was anonymous, the researchers asked the respondents to be honest, to give answers to the questions independently, without sharing any mutual comments or chatting with other respondents. The respondents were given the manual for filling in the questions included in the questionnaire. The time expected to complete the questionnaire was 20 min ± several minutes.

Instruments/Measures

The Questionnaire for Teachers, which was used as a research instrument, was taken from the Master's Thesis Studen Rajke (Studen, 2008 ), which was part of the project “Education for the Knowledge Society” at the Institute for Educational Research in Belgrade. The Teachers' Questionnaire examines the level of willingness that the primary school teachers have in order to accept children with disabilities, their experiences in working with children with disabilities, and their suggestions that would lead to more successful outcomes for children with disabilities. The questionnaire also contains a five-point scale consisting of 22 statements related to the importance of certain psychological and pedagogical measures undertaken for the purpose of successful implementation of inclusive education and factors that may be aggravating for the inclusive process. The independent variables examined in the research are sociodemographic characteristics of primary school teachers (such as gender, age, length of service). Dependent variables measured in the study referred to the attitudes of primary school teachers toward inclusive education (their readiness for inclusion, assessment of conditions for inclusion, difficulties, and benefits of inclusive education, providing support to children and parents involved in the inclusive education, the importance of psychological and pedagogical measures undertaken for the purpose of successful implementation of inclusive teaching, assessment of factors that may be aggravating for the inclusive process). The reliability of The Questionnaire for teachers in a sample of adult respondents was 0.86.

Statistical Data Analysis

Statistical data processing was performed using SPSS software package, version 18.0. The results of the research are presented in Tables 1 – 4 . Categorical variables are represented as frequencies and the Chi-square test was used to determine if a distribution of observed frequencies differed from the expected frequencies. A probability of <5% was considered statistically significant.

Sociodemografic characteristics of primary school teachers and attitudes toward inclusive education.

Factors that complicate the process of inclusion in education.

As the figures indicate, males accounted for 31.3% of the total number of primary school teachers, whereas females accounted for 68.7%. The average age of respondents was 43.1 ± 8.4 years. The majority of respondents were aged between 40 and 49 years (39.4%), whereas the least number of respondents was in the group with an age of more than 60 years (3.9%).

A total of 23.4% of professors had a length of service of up to 5 years, 29.7% had a length of service from 5 to 9 years, a third had a length of service from 10 to 14 years, and 12.5% had a length of service of over 15 years. The largest percentage of them, 60.9%, believe that inclusive education requires a selective approach according to the type and severity of developmental pathology, 20.3% of them believe that it is an inalienable right of every child, whereas 18.8% believe that it is a utopia. Almost a third of professors (31.3%) stated that in their previous pedagogical work, they had experience with children with disabilities, while slightly more than half of them (54.7%) rarely had this particular experience.

Only one in five primary school teachers (20.3%) stated positively that there were conditions in the school for the inclusion of children with disabilities. As the most common problems they had in the educational work with this category of students, the teachers of primary education stated the difficult adoption of the material (82.8%) and the realization of emotional control by 17.2%.

One in three teachers (32.8%) thought that inclusion was useful for children with disabilities (29.7%), of them thought that schools did not have the conditions for inclusive education, while one in four teachers (25.0%) believed that inclusion was not good. Every second professor (56.3%) thought that children with disabilities would be more successful in mastering the material in a special school, while 43.8% of them thought that they would be more successful in a regular school, but if there were schools that corresponded to material and organizational standards of the most developed countries. Observed by gender, the attitudes of teachers did not show a statistically significant difference, while according to work experience there are differences when it comes to attitudes toward inclusive education, to difficulties in working with children with disabilities and to the benefits of inclusive education ( Table 1 ).

Despite positive attitudes toward inclusive education, teachers' attitudes were only partially positive when it came to attitudes toward children with disabilities ( Table 2 ). Observed attitudes showed a statistically significant difference.

Attitudes of primary school teachers toward children with disabilities.

The professors also pointed out which factors would make it easier for a child with developmental disabilities to follow regular classes ( Table 3 ) complete with the factors that most often complicated the inclusion process in practice ( Table 4 ). Observed factors showed a statistically significant difference.

Factors that would facilitate the process of inclusion in education.

The significance of implementing inclusion in the education system complete with the association of early inclusive education with educational outcomes of children with disabilities is evident (Samadi and McConkey, 2018 ). Numerous countries have made considerable progress in this particular area, by means of legal regulation which regulates the provision of services to children with disabilities (Magyar et al., 2020 ). However, data obtained so far indicate that in some of the countries children with disabilities still attend special schools and are often excluded from the educational system. In order to enhance the inclusion system, local and national politics have to be precisely conceptualized with clearly defined objectives, whereas the school environment has to provide adequate support for children with disabilities (Werner et al., 2021 ).

Teachers are recognized as the key actors and their attitude toward inclusion is of high relevance for the successful implementation of inclusive education strategies, but the factors influencing these attitudes have been given insufficient attention in the studies conducted in our territories. Despite the fact that substantial action has already been taken in relation to this particular area, the implementation of inclusive education in practice has encountered numerous difficulties. It is our teachers who place an emphasis on the fact that inclusive education is an inalienable right of every child, they accentuate its usefulness in terms of understanding individual differences among children, but they also point out that regular schools have no conditions or capacities to carry out inclusive education.

Additionally, other research studies demonstrate that teachers justify the concept of inclusive education in terms of children's rights (Kayama, 2010 ; Okyere et al., 2019 ), but they also express their concern regarding numerous challenges they are currently juggling in their daily work with children with disabilities. The lack of professional competencies along with the lack of adequate conditions aimed at developing successful inclusive educational practice are the main reasons given by teachers which present a major hindrance to the successful implementation of inclusive education (Savic and Prosic-Santovac, 2017 ), which is indicated by our research findings.

Interestingly, the results obtained from several studies show that certain gender specific patterns are recognizable when it comes to attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education, with female teachers showing a more positive attitude toward inclusive education, whereas other studies indicated no gender specific differences in forming the aforementioned attitudes (Alghazo et al., 2003 ; Woodcock, 2013 ).

Concerning the age relevance, some studies demonstrate that the age of teachers has no significant effect on forming their attitudes toward inclusive education (Avramidis and Norwich, 2002 ), whereas other studies show that older teachers have more negative attitudes toward inclusion (De Boer et al., 2011 ). In addition, they indicate that inclusive education training programs have a positive effect on attitudes of younger teachers, which is probably due to the fact that older teachers have rarely attended courses on inclusive teaching or have not been provided with relevant in-service training at all (Forlin et al., 2009 ). Our research results show that sex have no significant impact on their attitudes toward inclusive education.

Another study outlined that the lack of teachers' self-esteem regarding teaching students with disabilities was associated with their forming negative attitudes toward inclusion (Avramidis et al., 2020 ), whereas the study which took into consideration the factors such as the type and size of the school building and its classrooms complete with the characteristics of students such as gender or whether the child received support in the academic or non-academic areas of school education—indicated that the aforementioned factors had no significant effects on the attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education (Vaz et al., 2015 ).

Our study showed that teachers reported that the inclusion process could be more easily facilitated by the classroom adaptations accompanied by a class size reduction. However, we did not take into consideration the characteristics of students with disabilities in terms of their gender and level of school achievement in the inclusive environment, which may be the subject of our future research.

Taking into account the fact that the teachers included in our study reported insufficient curriculum planning for teaching children with disabilities, it is more than evident how necessary it is to introduce special curriculum programs for inclusion education. They emphasize that reforms of excessive coursework and curricula should be delivered, along with the adaptation of teaching contents to the abilities of these children and the application of active, interactive and participatory teaching methods. In addition, they indicated the necessity of continuous provision of professional assistance to the teacher by special educators/experts, such as defectologists and social pedagogues.

A large number of research evidence speak out in favor of the fact that it was the provision of support to teachers that positively influenced their attitudes toward inclusion, indicating that after the completion of inclusion training programs—the level of positive attitudes of teachers toward inclusion was significantly raised. Additionally, they emphasized that various types of social support (such as informational, instrumental or emotional support) may be provided by various actors (colleagues, supervisors, etc.) (Desombre et al., 2021 ; Hassanein et al., Hassanein et al.).

Nevertheless, the findings of other studies revealed that in the case if children or adults with disabilities were among teachers' family members or their circles of friends, teachers were more open to embracing the concept of inclusion, and that the very knowledge they possessed on the specific disability of their students had a positive impact on their attitudes toward inclusion (Vaz et al., 2015 ).

Teachers have to actively participate in the process of inclusion implementation and they have to be ready to handle all the new challenges presented at each level of the education system. They primarily need adequate support, cooperation, provision of professional experience and specific preparation of individual class sessions for the purpose of achieving as high-quality level of inclusive education as possible. Multidisciplinary work, professional development, attitudes and perception of teachers along with adequate cooperation with their students' family members and provision of positive support to students—play a significant role in inclusive education (Rojo-Ramos et al., 2021 ).

The inclusion of special needs children presents one of a kind challenge for the societies worldwide. Therefore, we need to take concrete actions and establish organizations of such a kind in all societies for the purpose of implementing adequate and high-quality inclusive education for this group of children specifically. Educational institutions should transform and adjust their educational programs in order to respond to this new growing challenge, whereas teachers should use their positive attitudes toward inclusive education to assume the leading role (Tétreault et al., 2014 ).

The advantages of our particular study are related to providing insight into the factors perceived as positively or negatively affecting the formation of positive attitudes toward inclusive education. It can contribute to creating measures, the focus of which will be on the enhancement and development of positive attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education. It is more than clear that there is a number of mutually linked factors and that each of the factors should be given considerable attention and be subjected to a detailed analysis. However, our study encountered certain limitations of its own. Namely, the sample included the teachers from urban areas only, whereas the teachers from neighboring suburban and rural areas were not included in the study. Additionally, the following factors were not included in the study: general attitudes of teachers toward people with disabilities in the society as a whole, and possible culturological differences between them. Furthermore, we did not take into consideration the degree of their concern or stress caused by the actual physical contact with children with disabilities, nor did we consider the financial fees for their work. We did not consider the attitudes of students and their parents toward inclusive education, investigations in this particular area will be a significant component of the future research studies, especially because of the fact that the teachers included in our study had already emphasized that the following factors complicated the process of inclusion in education: resistance of other children toward children with disabilities and resistance of parents of children of typical development toward inclusion. All the aforementioned facts indicated the necessity and recommendations for our future research directions. Due to our current study, numerous questions have been raised which are going to be part of our future research endeavors.

Conclusions

In order to guarantee the smooth inclusion of children with disabilities, various studies of this type are needed to identify the factors that hinder inclusive education in order to formulate strategies that can improve the inclusion of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the education system. Developing policies that support such strategies could improve this implementation. Experts specialized in different fields should gather in order to identify practical solutions to the challenges of creating an inclusive environment for children with special needs. Investing more resources and time in developing and implementing special education policies can promote successful inclusive education. The implementation of inclusive education is a very complex process and if it is considered from different perspectives, we could create a possibility of using the results of all the research conducted so far as well as all the future research results as the basis for initiating national programs and strategies on inclusive education. Our study represents only the starting point of our aspirations to render the inclusive education process in our territories as high-quality and comprehensive as possible.

Data Availability Statement

Author contributions.

JR conceptualized the research. JR, TK, SRade, and MM conducted the literature review, a preliminary analysis of the data, and a first draft of the manuscript. SRado and MS revised the data analysis. KP, MD, SC, BR, and OD revised the manuscript and provided feedback and corrections. JN, IS, KJ, and JR revised the final version of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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