The relationship between school culture and teachers' views towards inclusion

Including students who have special needs in the general education has been found to be beneficial for students, both academically and socially. The concept of inclusion is something that many schools are working towards in order to offer students the least restrictive environment possible for their education as stated by federal law. Research and literature have shown that there are significant benefits of inclusion for students in special education. Some teachers and administrators argue that inclusion in not an effective model due to lack of experience or training with general education teachers or lack of staffing. Research also illustrates that positive school culture is a huge asset to all schools and can support all teachers and staff in working more collaboratively and inclusively. The purpose of this research was to contribute to scientific knowledge in the area of special education. General education teachers who taught in the elementary setting, Grades K--6, were administered 2 surveys. One survey was used to measure their views on school culture and the other to measure their attitudes towards students with special education in the general education setting. A simple regression analysis was completed to look at the correlation between these 2 variables and determine if any relationship existed. There was no significant correlation between the scores on the 2 surveys and no relationship was found to exist between school culture and teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. Therefore, the null hypothesis is retained due to no significant relationship. Although the findings in the study revealed that there was no significant relationship between school culture and teacher attitudes towards students with special needs in the general education setting, the results of this study are in contrast to the large body of literature that was reviewed.