Attitudes of teachers in Bulgarian kindergartens towards inclusive education

The purpose of this paper was to determine the readiness of kindergarten teachers in Bulgaria in anticipation of impending inclusion-driven reforms in the education system. Data on 922 kindergarten teachers' attitudes towards inclusion across three dimensions (cognitive, affective, and behavioural), their concerns, and self-efficacy were analysed. Overall, teachers reported being willing to adapt their behaviour to promote inclusion in their classroom, despite not feeling particularly positively about inclusion. Inclusion-related training, which is critical for teachers to meet the demands of reforms, was a robust, positive predictor of teachers' attitudes across all three dimensions. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

The purpose of this study was to determine the readiness of kindergarten teachers in Bulgaria for the impending education reforms. The study analyzed data on 922 kindergarten teachers' attitudes, concerns, and self-efficacy towards inclusion. Overall, the teachers were willing to adapt their behavior to promote inclusion in the classroom, despite having somewhat negative attitudes towards inclusion.