Teachers' perception of inclusive education and students with special education needs

Teachers have been considered key actors in inclusive education; therefore, this research was aimed at identifying the perception of teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education and students with SEN. Thus, a quantitative study was conducted with a study sample of 383 teachers from public educational institutions of General Basic Education in Ecuador. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire designed ad -hoc, which integrates four dimensions that allow measuring the positive and negative attitudes of educators towards inclusion. This instrument is composed of 30 items accompanied by a Likert-type scale. The main results showed the existence of negative attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education, while towards students with special education needs the tendency was towards a positive attitude. Statistically significant differences were also identified between the perceptions of male and female teachers regarding inclusive education and students with special educational needs.