UC Berkeley

Young children with special needs have been educated in classrooms for over 40 years. While their role in included classrooms has been debated for decades, children with special needs are to be educated with their general education peers with appropriate aids and supports. (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2004). While studies about the definition of inclusion indicate that it means different things to different people, researchers have determined that teachers in part develop their pedagogy based on their beliefs of how children learn which could affect their beliefs about inclusive practices. In addition we know that teachers need supports to successfully include children with special needs in general education classrooms.

Although researchers have looked at inclusion through many lenses, little work has been done to see if there is a connection between early childhood education teachers' beliefs about and supports for inclusion. This study was designed to illuminate the connection between preschool teachers' beliefs about including children with special needs in his or her classroom and the supports that he or she receives to help facilitate that inclusion. In total, 218 Head Start and private early childhood educators were surveyed on their beliefs about inclusion and the quality of inclusive practices. Through a quantitative correlational design, I used the My Thinking about Inclusion Scale (MTAI; Stoiber et al., 1998) to score the teachers' overall beliefs about inclusion and the Quality of Inclusive Experiences Measure (QIEM; Wolery, Pauca, Brashers, & Grant, 2000) to analyze the level of support for inclusion that the teachers received.

Results indicated that overall, early childhood educators are favorable to inclusion and that no differences exist between groups. Teachers who self-reported high quality levels of support for inclusion however reported more favorable beliefs for including students with special needs in their classroom. In addition, teachers who reported more in-service training for inclusion also indicated more favorable beliefs for including students with special needs. Overall significant results indicated that there was a relationship between beliefs and supports, and teachers who had more favorable beliefs about inclusion had more supports for inclusion.