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Abstract

Advocacy for inclusive education has been connected with the United Nations’ global poverty alleviation guidelines, the Sustainable Development Goals, which appeal to countries to extend universal access to education, from primary to secondary schooling. In the Ghanaian context, the implementation of inclusive education in secondary schools has been under-explored. In this study, we adopted Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour as a framework to explore demographic variables which could impact on teachers’ intentions to practise inclusive education in secondary schools. We recruited 457 teachers from five districts in one region in Ghana. T-test and analysis of variance were used to ascertain the association between demographic variables and intentions. We found no significant differences between participants based on school resourcing or location. However, participants in private schools had attitudes that were more positive, they felt they received more support, had higher self-efficacy, and were more willing to include children with disabilities in their classrooms than teachers in public schools. Also, we found a difference between participants on units of study taken in inclusive education during pre-service training and their level of confidence to practise inclusive education. The need for teacher educators to embed more inclusive teaching practices in all courses at teacher training institutions is discussed, as well as other study implications.

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Opoku, MP and Rayner, C and Cuskelly, M and Pedersen, S
Keywords:	Ghana, inclusive education, secondary schools, teachers, theory of planned behaviour
Journal or Publication Title:	International Journal of Disability, Development and Education
Publisher:	Routledge
ISSN:	1034-912X
DOI / ID Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2020.1731434
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in International Journal of Disability, Development and Education on 24/02/2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1034912X.2020.1731434
Related URLs:	Google Scholar: Rayner, C UTAS Profile: Rayner, C Google Scholar: Cuskelly, M UTAS Profile: Cuskelly, M Google Scholar: Pedersen, S UTAS Profile: Pedersen, S
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