Primary School Teachers’ Knowledge of Inclusive Pedagogy and Attitude towards Inclusive Education: Special Focus on South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia

Pages: 360-370
Bitew Atnaf (Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education, Bahir Dar University,Ethiopia)

This study focuses on investigation of the general education primary schools in-service teachers’ level of knowledge of inclusive pedagogy (IP) and factors that affect this variable. To achieve the above objectives, the researcher used embedded concurrent mixed methods research design: cross-sectional survey and case study methods. Moreover, knowledge of IP questionnaire (KIPQ), document analysis and interview guides were used to collect the data. To collect the quantitative data, 146 participants were selected through stratified simple random sampling from four purposely selected primary schools which were found in South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia. Additionally eight teachers and two principals were selected purposely from these schools for in-depth interview. The data were also collected from a module used in training of in-service teachers for inclusive education. The result of the study indicated that the study participants had marginal level of knowledge of IP (M = 2.44, SD= 0.85)and neutral attitude towards inclusive education (M= 3.14, SD=1.24). This result mainly attributed to the participants’ inadequate training on knowledge of IP and lack of teaching materials and facilities that foster the development of the IP, lack of familiarity with students with special needs and characteristics. The study result implies that these teachers could not meet diverse students’ needs because of their lack of knowledge IP and unwilling to include and use creativity to meet the students’ needs. This in turn may lead them to use traditional teaching method that marginalizes students with special educational needs. Finally, implications for in-service teachers’ training for quality IP and positive attitude are discussed based on the findings of the study.