Educators' attitudes towards inclusive education

This study reports on educators' attitudes towards inclusive education. The study had three objectives. The objectives intended to examine educators' attitudes towards inclusive education, to determine the extent to which educators were influence by factors such as qualifications, age, gender, phase, experience and class size and finally to find out whether educators, who have contact with special education personnel, hold positive attitudes towards inclusive education. The investigation was carried out by means of a questionnaire which was administered to groups of black and white educators teaching in mainstream settings, a remedial centre and a pilot school for inclusive education. The study is based in KwaZulu-Natal. Fifty - eight percent of the educators were found to have negative attitudes towards inclusive education, whereas forty-two percent displayed a positive attitude towards inclusive education. Results also indicated that the variables of age, gender, qualification, experience, grade and class-size have an influence on educators' attitudes towards inclusive education. The results furthermore show that fifty-nine percent of educators did not have contact with special