Attitudes of Croatian and Polish elementary school teachers towards inclusive education of children with disabilities

Sa？etak Inclusive education has been gaining increasing attention from governments throughout the world. Croatia and Poland, two European Union members that ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, have been working on issues related to improving the quality of education of children with special educational needs. The aim of this article was to explore the attitudes of Croatian and Polish elementary education teachers towards inclusion of these children in regular classes. The sample consisted of 98 elementary education teachers from Croatia (N=50) and Poland (N=48). A diagnostic survey based on the Teacher Attitudes Toward Inclusion Scale (TATIS) (Cullen, Gregory, & Noto, 2010) was used. The instrument allows measurement of three main components of attitudes: teacher perceptions of students with mild to moderate disabilities (POS), their beliefs about the efficacy of inclusion (BEI), perceptions of professional roles and functions (PRF), as well as their general attitudes towards inclusion. We found that Polish teachers received significantly higher scores on two subscales: POS and BEI. We also found that age and place of living influenced the attitudes of teachers in the two groups. Implications for practice are discussed