Attitudes of Greek physical education teachers toward inclusion of students with disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of Greek physical education teachers toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular education settings and to compare the results with the findings of similar studies. The sample consisted of 93 participants, all physical education teachers working at different schools of Athens. Each subject completed the Teacher Integration Attitudes Questionnaire (Sideridis and Chandler, 1997), which assesses scores for four factors: skills, benefits, acceptance and support. The results of the study showed that the attitudes of physical education teachers toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in their regular classes are related to the level of knowledge that the teachers believe they have for the special needs conditions; in addition, they doubt that inclusion could be workable, due to the lack of appropriate support services. In the light of the findings, the concept of inclusion was further analysed.