Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education in selected public primary schools in Teso South Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya

Abstract

Successful implementation of inclusive education is the key area attracting most educators across the world today. Few schools in Kenya have attempted inclusive education. There was little information on evaluation attempts towards inclusion. This study attempted to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education. It employed planned behaviour theory by Ajzen which gives a link between attitudes and behaviour. A questionnaire was used to gather information on teachers’ attitudes on their willingness to teach. Teachers’ attitudes towards Special Needs Education teaching methodology, administration and parental support in an inclusive education setting were also sought. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research approach. A survey research design was used with selected primary school teachers from Teso South Sub-County which had a total of 754 teachers. Seventy five teachers were selected using simple random sampling. The analysis of coded data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Thereafter, analyzed data was fed into Microsoft Excel to generate tables and figures. Descriptive statistics, frequency tables, bar graphs and percentages were used to present the data. The findings of the study revealed that majority of teachers had a negative attitude towards inclusive education due to insufficient knowledge on the practice, limited administration and parental support. Therefore, the findings will help stakeholders in education, namely; teachers, parents and education officers in matters of planning, organizing and managing in- service training to facilitate inclusion for smooth provision of education for pupils with special needs in public primary schools. A similar study could be of importance if conducted in privately owned institutions of learning, both at primary and secondary school levels.