Reccomended citation: Dubey, R., Singh, U. & Prasad, D. (2016).

Attitude of teachers and

peers towards special children. In S. K. Pradhan & J. Mete (Eds.), Higher Education (pp. 145-
151). New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-93-85876-97-4.

Attitude of teachers and peers towards special children

*Ragini Dubey, Ujjala Singh & Dinesh Prasad.

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the attitude of teachers and students towards special
children or special educational needs children. In addition, it also aims to examine the effect
of gender on teachers‟ attitude towards special children. Participants included in this study
are 40 school teachers and 40 general students from ten schools of Bilaspur city. 4 teachers
and 4 students were selected randomly from each of the schools taken. Descriptive survey
research design is used for this study and Necessary information were collected by using a
five point attitude scale developed by the researcher and a semi structured interview schedule.
After scoring and tabulation of data, Analysis was done with the help of mixed approach of
both Qualitative as well as Quantitative. Results indicated that the students tended to have
more positive attitudes towards special children as compared to their teachers; the results also
indicated that there were no significant differences in attitude because of gender.

Key Words- Attitude, Peers & Special children.

Introduction

It is a matter of common knowledge and believe that „Nothing is permanent in this world‟ so
as to society as well as the education system. Today, according to the changing needs our
Society has changed the direction or the way in which it educates its children. The recent
trend, which has gained popularity since 1970s, is the fusion of regular or general education
with special education; known as inclusion. Inclusion as we know is an educational practice
based on a notion of social justice that advocates access of equal educational opportunities for
all the students irrespective of any type of disability or special needs. It represents the belief
that children with special needs (CWSN) also known as special educational needs (SEN)
children should be integrated completely into general classrooms and their instruction should
be based on their abilities, never on disabilities (Al Zyoudi, 2006). The term CWSN refers to
all those children whose needs arise out of their specific abilities or learning difficulties.
Therefore it is imperative to ensure that the school teachers are competent enough to cater for
the needs of an increasing range of diverse learners (Al Tarwana, 2008) and while preparing
such teachers for an inclusive setting their attitude, beliefs, expectations and acceptance

* JRF scholars, Deptt. of Education, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur (C.G.)

Email- [email protected]
[email protected]
matters the most. Substantial number of studies in this field showed that an important
predictor of successful integration of students with disabilities in general classes is the
positive attitude of teachers (Beyene & Tizazu, 2010; Sharma, Florin, Lowerman & Earle,
2006; Al-Khatteb 2004; Dover, 2002; Gadium, 2002; Mckeskey & Waldrom, 2002;
Avramidis, 2001; Mowes, 2000 & Elloker, 1999). So, a positive attitude needs to be fostered
and it indicates the successful implication of inclusion. A number of studies have been
carried out to explore the attitude of teachers towards special children. For example: Barton
(1992) has showed that generally teachers are not ready to accept children with disabilities in
general schools. Clark, et al (1997) concluded that mainstream education is very often less
segregated, rather than fully inclusive. Mukhopadhyay and Sharma (1990) while identifying
teaching competencies specifically for integrated education of the disabled children found
that- The teachers had a positive attitude towards equal educational opportunities for disabled
children. Singh and Prabha (1987) revealed in a UNICEF sponsored topic “Evaluation of
integrated educational facilities for physically handicapped in the schools of Bihar”. Their
findings are-

 Physically handicapped students were well adjusted with their families but there was lack
of communication between such students and their class fellows. Resource teachers were
not trying to bridge the gap.
 The school has not taken advantage of the training facilities extended to them for the
resource persons for the handicapped students.

In this connection it will be worthwhile to know about the attitude of teachers as well as peers
towards special children, so that we can draw a clear inference regarding the success of
inclusive education and a vision of barrier free society. Primary purpose of this study is to
know about the attitude of teachers and peers for special students studying in their school or
classes. At the same time it also aims to investigative the effect of gender on teachers‟
attitude towards special children.

Objectives

1. To study the attitude of school teachers towards special children in an inclusive setting.
2. To study the attitude of peers towards special children in an inclusive setting.
3. To study the difference between attitudes of male and female school teachers towards
special children.
Hypotheses

Keeping in view the objective no. 3 the following hypothesis was formulated-

 There is no significant difference between attitudes of male and female school teachers
towards special children.

Methodology

In view of the objectives, hypothesis and the nature of data to be collected the Descriptive
Survey method is used for the present investigation. Necessary information was collected
with the help of an attitude scale and a semi structured interview schedule. Analysis was done
with the help of mixed approach of both Qualitative and Quantitative.

Participants

Sample of this study consist of 40 school teachers and 40 general students. For this ten
schools of Bilaspur city have been selected. After that two male and two female teachers as
well as students were selected randomly from each of the school selected.

Research instrument

A semi structured interview schedule for students and a questionnaire for teachers were used.
Questionnaire was a five-points rating scale ranging from 1(strongly agree) to 5 (strongly
disagree) with the mid-point 3 (undecided) to study the teachers‟ attitude towards special
children. The instrument was a set of 28 items developed by the researchers based on
previous studies in which 14 statements are positive and 14 are negative. The scale yields
score values ranging from 28 to 140 points.

Analysis of the Results

1. Attitude of school teachers towards special children.

 Inclusiveness- In a study of Monsen, Ewing & Kwoka (2014) teachers‟ attitude towards
inclusion were found to have a significant impact on their classroom environment. So to
know about the teachers‟ view regarding inclusiveness, when the participant teachers
were asked about to continue with special children in a normal school it was found that
58% of the teacher are of the opinion that special children should be taught in a special
school where as 42% opposed it. One SEN children supported this fact in this context
reveling one incident that one teacher used to say her to get admission in special school.
 Classroom management- Classroom management is an important factor to make the idea
of inclusion a reality. Very surprisingly it was found that 63% of teachers are of the
 opinion that as the SEN children have some difficulty so they have to do some special
work to catch the attention of the teachers, very few, only 37% opposed the statement.
 Teaching strategy and method- We all know that for the successful implementation of
inclusive education the teacher should change or modify their teaching strategy and
method in such a way that they can make the content more comprehensible for SEN
children. It was found that 74% teacher agreed that they should focus on their teaching
strategy to make SEN children understood while 21% opposed the fact. In the same way
58% of teachers tried to make a teaching learning atmosphere suitable for the SEN
children and again with a surprise 37% opposed and 5% remained unanswered.

Now it is very clear that the teachers have to be more supportive towards the SEN children to
make inclusion a victory. After a complete analysis it is revealed that 53% of the teachers
have unfavourable attitude where as 47% has favourable attitude towards the SEN children.

2. Attitude of peers towards special children in an inclusive setting.

To know the picture related to this section the researcher asked some questions in an
interview and dimension wise analysis revealed the following-

 Personal relations- In response to the researcher 95% of the general students replied that
they had a good friendly relation with SEN children of their respective class but
surprisingly it was found that 29% of them were not aware of the fact that they are the
SEN children. When the situation came about helping the SEN children in terms of
homework, without any surprise 63% of the students supported the fact that they helped
them but 37% still had no interest to do that.
 Interaction with others- It was also found that 89% of the students confessed that though
the SEN children gave them a few trouble but they had no problem to adjust with them
where 11% of the students thought that it‟s better to break the relation. 89% of them
confessed that they became angry if any teacher or students criticize SEN children
without any solid reason. When the researcher asked about how many student thought
that their relation with the SEN children made them away from the normal friend group,
82% of student opposed the fact and 18% agreed by saying that they are suffering by this
situation. Again 71% of the student thought that the negligence of the peer students made
the SEN children unhappy.
 Classroom learning- Classroom learning is also an important part to know the attitude of
peer students toward the SEN children. In this connection 87% of student told that the
 SEN children did not hamper the normal pace of the study in the class. A significant
result found when the researcher tried to know the impact of SEN children in the
classroom teaching. 68% of the student thought that the presence of SEN children was not
a factor but 32% still thought that SEN children made the classroom learning a bit slow.
 School atmosphere- Another very important factor is school atmosphere to know the
attitude of the normal children with the SEN children. In this respect it is found that 66%
of student thinks that it is possible for the SEN student to complete their schooling from
the inclusive education school but 34% thinks that it is not possible for them. Again from
the data it is found that 76% student think that the SEN children feel comfortable in the
school but 24% shared that the SEN children confessed to them that they feel uneasy in
the surrounding of school.

By this mix result it is very clear that the school atmosphere is not 100% suitable for SEN
children. It is very clear that the majority 92% of the students is favourable in nature whereas
8% of them are found unfavourable. But when the researcher interacted with SEN children it
was found contradictory in most of the cases. When the researcher asked a normal student to
fill the form for the respective SEN children of their class, they all showed immense
negligence to do so. When the researcher asked one normal student about this negligence he
replied, “What is the need to fill the form for him as he is handicapped?” Besides all these a
surprising finding is that in response to the researcher 100% students replied that though
many persons did not like the SEN children but they always accepted them readily. This
statement revealed that the SEN children played a major responsibility to make the
interaction healthy.

3. Difference between attitudes of male and female teachers towards special children.

Table: Attitude of male and female school teachers towards special children
Variable Groups No. Mean SD df t-value Result
(Gender)

Attitude towards Male 20 73.13 4.63 38 2.94 Rejected @

special children. Female 20 75.34 4.09 .05 level

To answer the question on attitude of school teachers towards special children by gender,
mean and S.D. were calculated and an independent t-test was used. As for gender differences
the mean of the attitude of male participants was 73.13 (SD = 4.63) and of female participants
was 75.34 (SD = 4.09), with a t- value of 2.94 which is greater than the table value 2.02 @
0.05 level for the df 40 (near about 38). So the null hypothesis is rejected and it can be
interpreted that there is a significant difference between attitudes of male and female school
teachers towards special children. Now it is clear from the numerical evidences that female
have more favourable attitude as compare to male teachers. Several studies (Leyser &
Tappendorf, 2001; Pearman, Huang, Barnhart & Mellblom, 1992; Hodge & Jansma, 2000;
Nabors and Larson, 2002; Shah et al, 2013 ) support this view that female teachers are
inclined to have more favorable attitude while in some other studies (Bhatnagar & Das, 2014;
Alquraini, 2012; Lampropoulou & Padelliadu,1997) it was found contradictory.

Educational implication of the study

Inclusive education is a recent trend and much more desired innovation for all the mainstream
schools based on the principles of equal educational opportunities for all the students without
any discrimination. Today each and every state is emphasizing on „Education for All‟ mission
through various programs like DPEP, Basic Education, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, RTE and
many others. Finding of the present study will be helpful in identifying the effective
indicators and provide a strong base for the expansion of inclusive education especially in a
new and emerging state like Chhattisgarh.

Effectiveness of inclusive education in terms of indicators of its successful implementation

will open the doors for further development of this innovation. Furthermore the result of this
study could be utilized as base line data in the planning, implementation and evaluation of
further programs in inclusive education of the children with special needs.

Result of this study will fix priorities and promising strategies for overcoming obstacles and
accelerating progress on the way of inclusion. It will also be helpful for the context of
inclusive education to know the attitude of the all related dimensions towards the system and
for this purpose the present study will give a way to know the particular reason behind the
faith of inclusive education.

Conclusion

From the above we come to the conclusion that the vision of „Education for All‟ in an
inclusive setting needs a bit more helpful nature from the teachers. In this regard neither the
teachers nor the student can be identified as the only responsible member for the unsuccessful
status of the inclusiveness. If teacher as well as peer students show the readiness to accept
them with their disability it will be very easy for SEN children to adjust in the inclusive
school. By cross checking the view of teachers and students with each other clears that in
many aspect the statement of one (teachers) are not verified the other(SEN children). It is the
time for the teachers and students to change their attitude a bit to make the SEN children as a
part of our mainstream educational system.
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