Attitudes of parents of preschool children toward inclusion and their involvement in their children's education in relation to teacher attitude

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether parents' attitudes toward inclusion were related to either their children's teachers' attitudes toward inclusion, or their own tendency to be involved in their children's education. It was hypothesized that parents' attitudes might be affected by the person they come into contact with the most in the school, their child's teacher. It was also hypothesized that parents' who had more positive attitudes toward inclusion would be more involved in their children's education.;There were two groups of subjects in this study. The first group consisted of teachers of preschool classrooms where at least one child presently in the class had a delay or disability. The second group was comprised of the parents of the children, disabled and nondisabled, in these classrooms.;Teacher and parent participants were administered the brief version of the My Thinking About Inclusion (MTAI) scale to measure attitudes toward inclusion. Parent participants were also administered the Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ). The FIQ was developed and validated based on the multiple dimensions of involvement in Joyce Epstein's classification system. Three factors were revealed during the development of the FIQ as follows: Home-Based Involvement; School-Based Involvement; and Home-School Conferencing.;The analyses of the data showed that there was not a significant relationship between teacher's attitudes toward inclusion and their students' parents' attitudes toward inclusion. A modest positive relationship was found between parental attitudes toward inclusion and one type of involvement in their children's education---Home-School Conferencing. The results of this study also indicate that parents of children with disabilities are less involved in their child's education via School-Based Involvement and Home-Based Involvement than parents of children without disabilities. These issues are discussed in terms of implications for practice in the field, and suggestions for future research.