Attitudes and Concerns towards Inclusive Education in Pakistani Context: Pre-Service Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Aim of the Study: Inclusive education projects are being practiced in few public sector schools in Punjab. This research aims at investigating the perspectives of pre-service teachers in terms of their attitudes and concerns about inclusive education in the Pakistani context.

Methodology: For this purpose, a survey was conducted on (N=191) students enrolled in different teaching training programs at a public sector university in metropolitan city, Lahore. The responses of students were recorded on ATIES (Wilczenski, 1992) and CIES (Sharma & Desai, 2002).

Findings: The findings showed that pre-service teachers have favorable attitudes regarding including those kids who have trouble expressing themselves, who perform two or more academic years below grade level, and who require instruction in self-help skills and daily living tasks. However, they had the least favorable opinions of visually impaired and kids who required individualized functional academic programs in reading and math. The respondents expressed higher concerns about shortage of time, disliking of parents of children without disabilities and inappropriate infrastructure of public schools. Differences in attitudes and concerns were explored on the basis of gender, disability in family and course studied.

Conclusion: Implications of this research for teacher training institutes were also discussed. The results of this study have a number of ramifications both worldwide and within the setting of Pakistan. This study suggests that the length of the program is subject to the content covered in the pre-service teacher education programme and it carries more importance. The practical application of the study's findings should enable the development of more confident and upbeat educators who can guarantee education for all students through inclusive education.