A Comparison of Australian and Singaporean Pre-Service Teachers' Attitudes and Concerns About Inclusive Education

Abstract

A survey of 91 pre-service teachersfrom Australia and Singapore was conducted to investigate their attitudes and concerns about implementing inclusive education in regular schools. Results indicated that Australian pre-service teachers were more in favour of including students with disabilities into the regular school compared to their Singaporean counterparts. The findings suggested that the pre-service teachers' beliefs may be significantly influenced by prevailing policies in the county. Schools worldwide are increasingly moving towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in the regular classroom. While some countries have legislations, other countries have formulated policies supporting inclusion. Australia and Singapore are among the latter category. Although the importance of legislation and policies have been and continue to be stressed for the successful implementation of inclusion reforms, equally important are the positive attitudes of in-service and pre-service teachers. Jones (1984) has stated: It should not be surprising to any informed observer that meaningful implementation of legislative acts will require that we give as much attention to attitudinal barriers as we have given to the elimination of barriers of physical access, barriers of employment access and barriers of educational access. (p. vii)