Religion and attitudes of college preservice teachers toward students with disabilities: implications for higher education

The study examined attitudes toward school inclusion of students with disabilities of 1,145 prospective teacher trainees from six national/religious groups in eleven colleges in Israel: The groups were secular, religious and ultra-orthodox Jews and Muslim, Christian and Druze Arabs. Participants responded to the "Opinion Related to Inclusion Scale". Trainees in all six groups supported the principle of inclusion while simultaneously recognizing the need for segregated special education placements. Several significant group differences were found on the total score and the factor scores. The most supportive group of inclusion (i.e., the strongest rejection of segregation and the least concern about behavior problems) was the Jewish secular group followed by the Jewish religious group. The least support for inclusion was found for the ultra-orthodox Jewish group and the Arab groups. Implications for the preparation of educators in institutions of higher education were discussed.