Investigating Pre-service English Language Teachers’ Attitudes, Sentiments, and Concerns Towards Inclusive Education in Turkey

Abstract

Inclusion as an educational practice that has its roots in social justice promotes equal access to educational opportunities for all students irrespective of their special educational needs (SEN). The efficacy of such inclusive education largely depends on teachers, particularly their attitudes and skills for teaching students with SEN in mainstream classrooms. That being the case, teacher education programs play a crucial role in fostering these requisite skills and attitudes. This quantitative cross-sectional correlational study examines the attitudes, sentiments, and concerns of pre-service English language teachers regarding inclusive education. A total of 139 pre-service English teachers from five universities completed the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education–Revised Scale. Descriptive statistics and correlational analyses were used to analyze the data. The results indicated moderate attitudes towards inclusive education among the pre-service English language teachers. While their sentiments and concerns about inclusive education showed variations based on their prior coursework experience, their attitudes remained stable. Moreover, the attitudes and concerns of the participants did not reveal a significant correlation with their policy knowledge, but the sentiment scores showed statistically significant differences in the two groups. Finally, the amount of previous experience with SEN students did not significantly differ in terms of attitudes, sentiments, or concerns about inclusive education. The findings provide implications for foreign language teachers, teacher educators, and initial teacher education program developers.