ITE Students' Attitudes to Inclusion

This paper focuses upon a study of Initial Teacher Education (lTE) students' attitudes towards inclusion. The cohort investigated was an entire year's intake for the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at a university that attracts a large number of its students from the local region. (In the UK the PGCE is one of the routes to Qualified Teacher status, and is a one-year course taken by students who have already completed a first, bachelor's degree in a subject such as History, Mathematics or Modern languages, etc.) Key issues were identified within students' responses, and links have been made with other relevant studies. It draws on the view (e.g. Oliver, 1998) that inclusion is about social justice, a human and civil rights issue which is constrained by a society that perceives disabled people as less entitled to having their requirements met in ordinary society than those oppressed owing to race, gender or class.