Perceived School Climate and Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Among Resource Room Teachers: The Mediating Role of Self-efficacy

Conference: The Asian Conference on Education (ACE2022)
Title: Perceived School Climate and Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Among Resource Room Teachers: The Mediating Role of Self-efficacy
Stream: Education & Difference: Gifted Education, Special Education, Learning Difficulties & Disability
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation
Authors:
Zhengli Xie, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Mengting Li, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Abstract:

Resource room teachers (RRTs) are a new branch of teachers in China to support the implementation of inclusive education in regular education schools. Although attitudes towards inclusive education have been intensively investigated among regular classroom teachers, special school teachers, and pre-service teachers, RRTs’ attitudes towards inclusive education and the influential factors remain unknown.
Based on the theory of planned behavior and the social cognitive theory, this study examined the effect of RRTs’ perceived school climate on their attitudes towards inclusive education and the mediating role of self-efficacy in this relationship. A total of 209 RRTs who served seven types of students with disabilities in Beijing, China responded to three questionnaires: the Revised School-Level Environment Questionnaire, Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale, and Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practice Scale.
Results from structural equation modeling showed that, after controlling for age and in-service training, collaborative climate directly predicted the cognitive component of attitudes towards inclusive education. Furthermore, among the three dimensions of self-efficacy (i.e., efficacy in inclusive instructions, efficacy in collaboration, and efficacy in managing behaviors), only efficacy in collaboration played mediating roles in the relationships of collaborative climate and instructional innovation climate to the three components of attitudes towards inclusive education (i.e., cognitive, affective, and behavioral). The findings enriched the existing literature and have practical implications for enhancing RRTs’ positive attitudes towards inclusive education and for improving the quality of inclusive education.



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