ATTITUDE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN RELATION TO SOME DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES

This study aimed to investigate the attitude of secondary school teachers towards inclusive education concerning some demographic variables. Out of this population, a sample of 314 secondary school teachers were selected through a stratified random sampling technique from 40 schools (belonging to the government, local body and private management system). Sood and Anand (2011) established the Teacher Attitude Towards Inclusive Education Scale (TASTIE). There are forty-seven assertions total, of which thirty-nine are positive and eight are negative. The test is a three-point Likert scale. Each of the assertions contains three options, such as "Agree," "Undecided," and "Disagree," next to it. Positive (positive attitude) items score 3, 2, and 1, whereas negative (unfavourable attitude) items score oppositely. The reliability index, or product-moment correlation "r," between the two tests was 0.84, suggesting that the scale is quite dependable for gauging teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education. The results found that attitudes towards inclusive education vary among secondary school teachers. There is no significant difference between the attitude of male and female teachers towards inclusive education. Secondary school teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education are not considerably affected by their designation. Secondary school teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education are unaffected by the subjects they teach.