Bhatnagar, Nisha (2009) Attitudes and concerns of Indian teachers towards integrated education. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Education is the right of all children, and integrated education aims to ensure that all children have access to an appropriate, relevant, affordable and effective education within their community. The recent educational policies of inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms have created significant changes in practices for teachers. The inclusion of students with special educational needs in mainstream schools is a focus of debate in education systems all across the world. It has been suggested by eminent educators that successful inclusion is largely dependent upon a reconceptualisation of teachers' roles and responsibilities and therefore, it is essential to explore the attitudes and concerns of the mainstream teachers towards integration in their classrooms. In developing countries like India, the integration movement is a new concept for the educators and therefore, it is essential to restructure the policies and practices of the teachers to make integration as successful as it is in the developed world. Efforts to integrate disabled students into the least restrictive milieu, generally the neighborhood school, are fast becoming the dominant educational ideology in all the schools in India. This study was undertaken to identify and explore the attitudes and concerns of secondary school teachers regarding the integration of students with disabilities into their regular classroom programs in New Delhi and, to determine whether the attitudes and concerns of the teachers were significantly related to their background variables. Furthermore, the study also sought to identify different approaches and strategies which could modify teachers' attitudes and decrease their concerns for integrated education ·in their regular classroom programs.

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