Social attitudes toward inclusion and conception about specialized educational services in special education specialist formation

Abstract

The present study has as scope analysis of social attitudes toward inclusion and conceptions of specialized educational services kept by students of a postgraduation course on Specialized Educational Services. 33 students – 15 belonging to hearing impairment area and 18 to intellectual disability area – participated in the study. They were regularly enrolled in the course. Data collection took place through two instruments: a questionnaire developed for this research and the Likert Scale of Social Attitudes toward Inclusion. The analysis reveals that data from different instruments complement each other showing clearly that students with suitable conception about specialized educational services have social attitudes scores above the median, pointing out that they are more favourable to inclusion. Besides, the social attitudes of students whose option was intellectual disability area are more positive than the social attitudes of hearing impairment area students. It follows that the option for disability area may be affected by the social attitudes toward inclusion.