Abstract of S. Reiter lecture

ISRAELI ARAB TEACHERS' ATTITUDES ON INCLUSION OF

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

S. Reiter1, D. Nelson Bryen2, N. Karni3

1 University of Haifa, Department of Special Education, Israel; 2 Temple

University, USA; 3 Sakhnin Teachers' Education College, Sakhnin, Israel

The paper will describe a study done in middle schools, grades 7-9, in

Israel of Arab teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. A specially

designed questionnaire was used for the survey. The sample was

composed of 325 randomly selected middle school Arab teachers in

Israel. Findings revealed conflicting attitudes. On the one hand, we

found high commitment reported by these teachers to the inclusion of

students with special needs in regular education in the areas of

learning, social inclusion, emotional development. Similarly, these

teachers reported a positive view of the feasibility of making

adaptation of teaching materials for their special needs Students. On

the other hand, teachers expressed the view that the inclusion of

students with special needs does not contribute to the "regular"

students in any of the three areas: the academic, social and personalemotional.

They did not feel that typical students benefited from the

additional assistive technologies that are brought into their classroom

and they did not see the benefits of inclusion to the overall schools'

reputation. Most schools had no formal written statement concerning

the inclusion of students with special needs. At the same time

reported satisfactory opportunities to discuss issues concerning

inclusion with their school administration and they had fairly

satisfactory assistance from the special education area consultants.

Most teachers expressed the view that their school was only partially

accessible. Relations between school teachers and families were

found to be very limited.