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.


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