Inclusive Practices: How Accepting are Teachers?

This research addressed the question of educators’ beliefs about the rights of children with a disability to be included in regular schools. Principals and teachers from Education Support Centres (ESCs) and attached primary schools in Western Australia rated whether they considered children with either a physical or intellectual disability should be integrated full‐time or part‐time depending upon the degree of the disability (severe, moderate, mild). Acceptance of integration was lower for the child with an intellectual disability than for the child with a physical disability. Acceptance decreased as the degree of severity increased. Educators were more accepting of part‐time integration, but mostly only for the child with a mild or moderate disability. Educators from the ESCs were more accepting than were their regular school peers and as educators became more experienced they became less accepting of inclusion. Educators appeared to have strong beliefs regarding inclusive practices and these beliefs did not necessarily reflect the momentum towards greater inclusion. Discussion of this research focuses on the link between acceptance and commitment to the policy of inclusive education.