Pathways to Inclusion: Exploring Early Childhood School Administrators' Attitudes towards Including Children with Disabilities in Turkiye

Inclusion has been recognised as an educational practice to support development and learning of children with disabilities in general education settings in Turkiye since 1980s. Numerous studies have examined the attitudes of various stakeholder towards inclusive education. However, there is limited research examining early childhood school administrators' attitudes towards inclusion. The purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes of Turkish early childhood school administrators towards inclusion of young children with disabilities and factors that may impact their attitudes. A total of 267 school administrators completed an online questionnaire. Findings showed that early childhood school administrators possess moderately positive attitude towards inclusion of young children with disabilities in their schools. Variables including gender, education, administrative role and location of school predicted administrators' attitudes; female administrators, those with a bachelor's degree in early childhood education, principals rather than assistant principals; and those who worked in urban schools had more favourable attitudes. Moreover, early childhood school administrators' attitudes towards inclusion were found to be closely related to their values in relation to diversity and equity, beliefs regarding parental, community and system-level support for inclusion and previous positive inclusive experiences, professional development and training on inclusion and leadership skills. Implications for future research and practice are discussed

Automated summary

This study investigated the attitudes of Turkish early childhood school administrators towards the inclusion of young children with disabilities and the factors that may influence their attitudes. The findings showed that administrators have a moderately positive attitude towards inclusion in their schools. Variables such as gender, education, administrative role, and location of the school predicted their attitudes, with female administrators, those with a bachelor's degree in early childhood education, principals, and those who worked in urban schools having more favorable attitudes. The study also found that administrators' attitudes towards inclusion were closely related to their values in relation to diversity and equity, beliefs regarding support for inclusion, and previous positive inclusive experiences, professional development, and training on inclusion and leadership skills.