Early Childhood Educators’ Views, Sentiments, Attitudes, Concerns and Practices Related to Students with Special Needs

Abstract

This research aims to investigate early childhood educators’ sentiments, attitudes, and concerns towards students with special needs, their efficacy related to inclusive education practices, and how they follow students with special needs in their classrooms. This study uses a convergent/parallel mixed methods research design, including quantitative and qualitative research designs. The sample size of the quantitative part of the study is 135 early childhood educators. The participants for the qualitative part are ten early childhood teachers working with special needs children. The quantitative part of the study uses the scales of sentiments, attitudes, and concerns related to inclusive education and teacher efficacy during inclusive education practices. For the qualitative part of the study, researchers developed interview questions to collect data related to inclusive practices in early childhood education. The quantitative data is analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, and Spearman’s rho correlation non-parametric tests. The qualitative data is analyzed with content analysis and open coding. Based on the findings, there is no relationship between sentiments, attitudes, and concerns related to inclusive education and teachers’ efficacy during inclusive education practices. On the other hand, it is found that there is a weak correlation between the dimensions of sentiments attitudes and concerns and teachers’ efficacy and its dimensions. In light of the findings derived from qualitative data, teachers feel less unsatisfied about firstly children with special needs and their parents, then themselves, and finally, typically developed children and their parents during the adaptation process.