Social inclusion and intercultural values in a school of education

From this point of view, the university must help in training those pre-service Social Inclusion and Intercultural Values in a School of Education Olga M.. In this sense, the authors’ a

Chapter 20

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0672-0.ch020

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to analyze the contextual and personal factors associated with student teachers’ inclusive and intercultural values to minimize barriers to learning and participation It also examined the role higher education played as a facilitator of social inclusion Method The sample was comprised

of 1234 university students Researchers applied the Guide Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2000) composed of three dimensions: Culture, Politics and Inclusive Practices Positive elements emphasized the gender variable with highly significant scores on all dimensions Besides, younger students with no cooperation between teachers and families didn’t collaborate between teachers and family to promote inclusive attitudes Moreover, it was noted that experience increases to more predisposition to the inclu-sion and recognition of barriers to learning and participation As a concluinclu-sion, it was recognized that the principles of social inclusion may be influenced by variables such as gender, age, cultural experience and experience with people.

INTRODUCTION

Diversity is an inherent quality in human beings; consequently, each person thinks, feels and acts in a specific way in their lives That mentioned diversity is expressed naturally in educational groups accord-ing to students’ capacities, needs, interests, maturaccord-ing rate and socio-cultural situations, among others Education authorities must equalise students’ opportunities regardless of their personal or social situ-ation in order to allow them to achieve a complete development of their potentials which will let them

be thoroughly part of the society According to Pérez and Sarrate (2013), the university is an institution highly valued by students because it facilitates cultural, social and labour promotion, and since it im-pulses inclusive education From this point of view, the university must help in training those pre-service

Social Inclusion and Intercultural Values in a

School of Education

Olga M Alegre de la Rosa

University of La Laguna, Spain

Luis M Villar Angulo

University of Seville, Spain

university teachers which make them able to prevent and give answers to students’ needs This approach

is related to teacher professionalism, motivation and continuous training, whereas working to promote inclusion in education is arranged as a way to answer to school diversity

How teachers approach their educational work towards their students responds to the concept

bar-riers for the inclusion was first developed by Booth and Aisncow (2000) This concept emphasises a

contextual or social perspective on learning difficulties or disability, placing them between students and their context interaction: social and economic situations, educational policy and culture among schools The shortage of teachers who are qualified in inclusiveness complicates the quality of the educa-tion students receive, regardless of its type: religious or linguistic diversity, lack of culture or related

to gender, different abilities, or use of various cognitive types (Alegre, 2006) The limited attention to student attitudes and especially to student diversity is part of the problem of an inclusive and intercultural education (Lalueza & Crespo, 2012)

In this sense, the authors’ aim was to know the attitudes towards inclusiveness and interculturality

of students of the Degrees in Preschool Education, Primary Education and Pedagogy at the School of Education of La Laguna, since they were going to be teachers and/or career advisers, and they could improve inclusive culture and integrative practice at school (Booth & Ainscow, 2000) Likewise, the fact

of having carried out the study about future professionals in education allows authors to investigate the role of personal attitudes in the teacher training process, and to see if these attitudes will be modified during his or her university progress, affecting their school students (Antoniou & Kyriakides, 2013) The study has taking place with primary and secondary school children (Darretxe, Goikoetxea, & Fernández, 2013; Furuta & Alwis, 2013; Roselló, 2010) and with university student teachers (Chireshe, 2011; Lambe, 2007; Sánchez, 2011) This work has been held on the Canary Islands, in particular on Te-nerife, because it is a very important area placed between three different continents (Wedell, 2005, 2008), maximising changes in order to make inclusive attitudes more effective (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002)

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

Future teachers’ attitude in any part of the world is seen as an essential concept for a better educational practice and policy, which progress to inclusiveness and respect towards the existing diversity (Delgado, 2003; Rajovic & Jovanovic, 2013) To manage this success will depend on the positive attitudes profes-sionals in education have related to inclusiveness of any special educational needs (Doménech, Esbrí, González, & Miret, 2003)

In order to find a solution to these problems, it is necessary to change not only teacher training pro-grams (Costello & Boyle, 2013), but also to analyse factors that might impact upon teacher approval of the inclusive principle and use of different and appropriate methodologies to make everyone feel included (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002)

The above-mentioned needs are not new, as inclusiveness has been consolidated in the philosophical basis used by Warnock’s inform (1978), in the role of incorporating families in the education of children

(Esquivel, 1995), and in current approaches of the Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2000), as

positive mindsets to take

Through these approaches and thanks to the combination of tools and resources used in the process

of inclusiveness development at school, the interest is focused on how professionals in education mature and develop their own attitudes towards students, in order to help those students to build significant

meanings, which let everyone’s integration In this way, inclusiveness becomes a valuable device sys-tem to make appropriate school programs and practices to cover students’ educational needs with their schoolwork, communication or behavior (De Boer, Pijl, Minnaert, & Post, 2014; Sentenac, Ehlinger, Michelsen, Marcelli, Dickinson, & Arnaud, 2013)

According to Idol’s idea (2006), this does not mean students with higher educational needs should receive an academic curriculum which is different to the rest of students, as for inclusiveness only hap-pens when students with learning difficulties or disabilities receive the complete academic curriculum from the general education programme The author emphasized that inclusive attitudes are reinforced

by beliefs in a highly attractive whole group

Current contributions related to inclusive education (Alegre & Villar, 2010; Poon-McBrayer & Wong, 2013; Unianu, 2011; Verdugo, 2009; Vlachou, Didaskalou, & Voudorri, 2009; Wehmeyer, 2009) have shown that inclusiveness demand an analysis of change processes and a follow-up of educational cogni-tive, physical, emotional and cultural practices, and most important of all suggestions for home-to-school connections and real life classroom settings improvement

Symeonidou and Phtiaka (2009) have carried out an analysis of inclusive and intercultural education through training courses for teachers related to the change of attitudes via educational practice In this sense, the aim of inclusive education was to enlarge values that lead to the improvement and develop-ment of a secure, educational, integrated and conciliatory community Those inclusive values must be common among teachers, students and families as a model to enrich the school setting

It is also necessary to know about how student teachers assume school children inclusiveness and integration, being essential to deal with those two concepts from a wider perspective, which takes into account a culture of school transformation to look after diversity and current student educational needs, such as reading, writing, number work or understanding information expressing themselves or under-standing what others are saying

This culture, in support of engaging students who seem unreachable, and for diversity of learning activities must develop cooperative, plural and respectful attitudes and behaviours, regardless of student origin or their physical, psychological or social condition (Alegre, 2012) Examining future teacher attitudes helps in knowing the process of inclusive-attitude constructions in students, facilitating that production of meanings that let everyone’s integration These concepts on developing intrinsic motivation where analysed by Alegre and Villar (2010) Their work was focusing on how skilled teachers think and concluded that teachers’ positive attitudes were key points for developing a right climate for inclusive and intercultural education

According to Essomba (2008), the search of an inter and multicultural awareness are outlined among ten challenge questions and also ten key ideas presented to teachers concerning people immigration, civil rights, social reality, linguistic projects, intercultural curriculum, identity construction, religious practices, cooperation, school community, and racism

TENTATIVE HYPOTHESIS

Tentative hypothesis of this study was designed to increase the knowledge on how demographic vari-ables such as gender, age, contact with different people and intercultural factors affect the acceptance

of principles of social inclusiveness by university student teachers

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER

Sample Issue

The sample was composed of 1234 individuals of the 1st and the 3rd year of Degree in Pre-school Education (PSED), Degree in Primary Education (PE) and Degree in Pedagogy (P) from the School of Education

at the University of La Laguna

Variables like gender, age, credentials, year of studies and experience in special and intercultural edu-cation were taken into account The students selected for the sample were at their 1st year – because those have been students for a shorter period of time – and 3rd year of university studies – because it was the last set up year on progress The sample was tried to be intentionally similar among the different degrees

Women percentage (n= 927, 75.1%) was higher than men percentage (n=307, 24.9%) Regarding

degrees, the highest weight was for PE (37.8%), followed by PSED (35%) and P (27.1%) Ages varied

between 18-22 years (n= 790, 64%), 23-27 years (n= 329, 26.7%), 28-32 years (n= 64, 5.2%), 33-40 years (n= 44, 3.6%), 41 years or more (n= 7, 0.6%) 55.2% of students was on the first stage and 44.8% was

on the second stage On the one hand, the obtained information indicated that most part of students did

not have experience – or have a short period of experience, between 0-3 years (n= 1177, 95.4%) – in the

intercultural field On the other hand, there was a low percentage of students with experience, between

4-8- years (n= 56, 4.5%) Related to experience and/or contact with disable people, 97.3% (n= 1201) answered they had had experience for about 0-3 years, while 2.7% (n= 33) had had it for about 4-8 years.

Debate: Instrument Selection

The instrument used for this work was a questionnaire adapted from the guide Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2000), called Questionnaire about Attitudes towards Inclusion and Interculturality

(QAII), validated adaptation in previous studies by Alegre and Villar (2012) and initially suggested as

a programme by Booth and Ainscow (2000)

Controversies: Validity of Measures

The questionnaire QAII measured attitudes in students and their conceptualization of inclusiveness

and interculturality, thanks to 45 items, classified in the three dimensions of Index for Inclusion (Booth

& Ainscow, 2000) and designed in a Likert scale of four alternatives (1= Not important; 2= Not very important; 3= Important; 4= Very important) The three dimensions of QAII are the following:

• Creating Inclusive Culture: 13 items composed this dimension Its objective is to impulse values

to improve and develop a secure community This dimension is divided into two sections: Building

community and Establishing inclusive values.

• Producing Inclusive Policies: 15 items constitute this dimension Its objective is a demand as a

guaranteed success in measures and implication of teachers in order to secure student

inclusive-ness This dimension is distributed in two sections: Developing the school for all and Organising

support for diversity.

• Involving Inclusive Practices: 17 items comprise this dimension Its objective is to advance

for-ward in collaboration, cooperation and implication of the educational community This dimension

is split in two sections: Orchestrating learning and Mobilising resources.

The questionnaire was anonymous and voluntary It was given to the whole sample of individuals and it was completed during teaching classes’ timetable

The QAII analysis was made through the statistics software package SPSS (v 19) A descriptive

analysis was carried out through ANOVA and t of Student for each of the items used on the sample of

individuals Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for reliability was obtained for QAII (.919), which guaranteed

exploratory research of student attitudes Likewise, reliability coefficient of each section of the Index for

Inclusion (see Table 1) was calculated and showed that Orchestrating learning was noticeably higher (α

= 811), followed by Mobilising resources (α = 757).

Demographic Problem Results: Descriptive and Inference

Analysis of Questionnaire QAII Dimensions

Related to students’ age, some differences were found among higher punctuations depending on the

section used in QAII Establishing inclusive values obtained the highest punctuation on average among

41 years old or more (M= 3.74; TD= 406) and also among 33-44 years old (M= 3.64; TD= 348) On

the contrary, the lowest punctuations were seen in Organising support for diversity among 18-22 years

old (M= 3.32; TD= 456) and among 23-27 years old (M= 3.44; TD= 446) (see figure 1) The highest

punctuation is in the section called Developing the school for all among people who are 33-40 years

old (M=3.63; TD= 397), 41 years old or more (M= 3.59; TD= 251), 23-27 years old (M= 3.57; TD= .391), 28-32 years old (M= 3.47; TD= 476), and 18-22 years old (M= 3.54; TD= 391)

Taking gender into account (Figure 2), the highest values in women were in Developing the school for

all (M= 3.60; TD= 386) Likewise, there were similar values in men (M= 3.40; TD= 462) In general,

punctuation in both, women and men, showed positive attitudes towards inclusiveness and

intercultural-ity, being the lowest values on average those from the section Organising support for diversintercultural-ity, not only

for men (M= 3.41; TD= 477), but also for women (M= 3.24; TD= 441)

Regarding intercultural experience, the sample with 4-6 years of experience had obtained a higher

average on all sections, standing out results obtained in the necessity and importance of mobilising

re-sources (M= 3.65; TD= 434) The lowest average punctuations were found in Organising support for diversity, among students in the sample with 0-3 years of experience (M= 3.30; TD= 456).

Lastly, and related to experience and contact with disable people, the statistic sample obtained was 97.3% of students have had a limited experience, the most relevant average punctuations were found

in Building community among people with 4-6 years of experience (M= 3.78; TD= 782) and in the

Table 1 Distribution of dimensions, sections and items

Dimensions Sections Distribution of items Reliability TD

Inclusive

culture Building communityEstablishing inclusive values 1,2,3,4,5,6,7.8,9,10,11,12,13. .669.590 .400.421

Inclusive

policies Developing the school for allOrganizing support for diversity 14,15,16,17,18,19.20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28. .673.665 .399.489

Inclusive

practices Orchestrating learning 29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40. .811 .389

Figure 1 Average punctuation of the sample of individuals, according to Age

Figure 2 Average answers of the sample of students, according to Gender

necessity and importance of Mobilising resources (M= 3.67; TD= 489) The lowest average punctua-tions were found in Organising support for diversity among students with 0-3 years of experience (M=

3.24; TD= 546)

Problem Analysis of Student Perceptions for QAII Questionnaire

T of Student tests (statistics software package SPSS, version 19) were carried out for each social

de-mographic variable from the sample of students in each one of the QAII items (gender, intercultural experience and experience in disability) through the variance analysis (ANOVA) in age and following a statistic signification criterion 05 Significant differences were revealed in the variable gender, and it was

even more noticeable in the dimension Inclusive Culture, specifically in the section Building community,

t (471.426/1234)= -5.726, p< 000, and Establishing inclusive values, t (1232/1234)= -4.639, p< 000.

The dimension Inclusive Policy showed significant differences related to gender in both sections,

Devel-oping the school for all, t (472.678/1234)= -7.212, and Organising support for diversity, t (490.824/1234)=

-5.517 Lastly, the dimension Inclusive Practice also showed significant differences in both sections:

Orchestrating learning, t (462.541/1234)= -6.739, and Mobilising resources, t (471.717/1234)= -5.710.

After having taken Experience in disability into account, some differences were seen in the section

Building community, t (1232/1234)= -2.215, p< 027, and related to Intercultural experience, there were

only significant differences in the section Organising support for diversity, t (1232/1234)= -2.394, p<

.017 (table 2)

Last, and taking into account the effect of age (table 3), results showed that the higher the range is,

the more differences in three of the six sections (Building community, Developing the school for all and

Organising support for diversity) The age ranges with the biggest difference between each other were

18-22 and 23-27 years old

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This study shows attitudes towards inclusiveness and interculturality among a sample of 1234 students

of Degrees in Pre-School Education, Primary Education and Pedagogy at the University of La Laguna Once students were classified by their age, more attitudes towards inclusiveness and intercultural-ity were showed in older individuals This is a relevant aspect because those students were at the last stages of their studies and/or their age let them have some experience in inclusiveness and intercultural-ity Consequently, it facilitated their future professional labour in inclusive and intercultural curricular competencies (Arteaga & García, 2008)

Differences in Organising support for diversity are significant, as younger students do not think

col-laboration among teachers and/or families is necessary in order to strengthen inclusive attitudes Related

to this, there are numerous authors (O’Rourkey & Houghton, 2008; Villar, 2004, 2008) who claim that type of collaboration is a decisive element to promote inclusive curricular competencies This situation implies the necessity of a deep analysis of competency development and achievement in the analysed Degrees with the purpose of obtaining a higher use and coordination

As it has remarked, the importance of an inclusive education consists in involving all the children from a specific community, so they will learn together, regardless of their personal, cultural or social conditions, including those children with any disability (Reyes, 2010) Moreover, student academic

training in inclusive competencies has to stand up to the necessity of reinforcing this knowledge and experience of future teachers

In relation to gender, women are more receptive than men when applying Inclusive culture, policy

and practice, standing out a higher difference between men and women in items of the section Build-ing community, which alludes to the importance of workBuild-ing as a team in an educational community in

order to create an inclusive philosophy Some authors like Firestone (1996), Graham (1996) and Alegre (2006) emphasized that it was necessary to have a teaching commitment regardless of gender or attitude for a good school working

Besides, the necessity of a better collaboration between teachers and families is the second more valued item by women Connected with this, authors like Gallavan (1998), Mateos, Torrejón, Parra, and Pérez (2008), and Kugelmass (2001) support the importance of communication among members who are part of the school community, especially between mothers and fathers This contributes to create

Table 2 Significant associations based on t of Student

Measure Effect (Items) Levene t p< M TD Gender Building community

Establishing inclusive values

Developing the school for all

Organising support for diversity

Orchestrating learning

Mobilise resources.

Experience in

disability Building community.5 .056 -2.215 .027 4-8= 3.27

Organising support for diversity

learning communities where the whole group is involved and it contributes to remove those barriers that damage learning and participation (Ainscow, 1999, 2002, 2004)

Meanwhile, Aguado (2004) described in her work the importance of the family-community dimen-sion in students’ and teachers’ attitudes, as the means to reach global quality in educational contexts and to develop the intercultural approach Like this, the author supported the active representation of

an educational community on its whole as part of the usual innovation and school change environment Concerning intercultural experience among students, most differences were found in the section

Building community Results showed that the more teaching experience, the better willingness towards

the construction of a secure community Lambe and Bones (2006), and Cook, Cameron, and Tankers-ley (2007) pointed out that the more experience in diversity students had, the higher positive effects on social inclusion principles

In relation to the effect of teaching children with disabilities, there were some significant differences

in the importance and/or necessity related to collaboration between teachers and families, organising support for diversity and coordinating all ways of children support Results of the study revealed longer teaching experience in special education brought more importance to that practice action

In this way, Minke, Oso, Deemer, and Griffin (1996) showed that special education teachers held the most positive views of inclusion, as regular teachers in the inclusive classrooms In these studies results highlighted that those teachers who were in contact with disabled children had more positive attitudes towards inclusiveness In addition, they also had a higher perception of self-efficacy, competency and satisfaction

It was equally necessary to point out the higher percentage of survey respondents who do not have teaching experience in working with disabled people Previous studies presented by López, Echeita, and Martin (2009) proved that it was necessary to reformulate teacher training strategies so that reflexion about future situations in the classroom related to disabilities would be strengthened, in particular, those situations which could reinforce this type of students segregation

Table 3 Significant feature associations based on ANOVA by Age

Measure Effect (Items) Levene gl F p< Post hoc

Tukey M TD

23-27 23-27 with 33-40

18-22=2.90 23-27=3.20 33-40=2.70

.936 874 991 Developing the school for all

23-27 18-22=3.41 23-27=3.60 .709 .671 Organising support for diversity

23-27 18-22=3.40 23-27=3.56 .619 .587

23-27 18-22=3.25 23-27=3.48 .691 .662

23-27 18-22=3.21 23-27=3.47 .843 .782

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

In short, this study suggested teaching competencies, which make the whole university community be involved in values, related to support for diversity and to the importance of an education that favours inclusive and intercultural teaching-learning processes (UNESCO, 2011)

Authors provided recommendations to develop inclusive practices for School of Education students They were committed for a program improvement tool at the University of La Laguna to assist university students in creating a safe, inclusive and caring school and classroom environment (Alegre & Villar, 2009) However, in order to build a more just, inclusive and intercultural school community it is necessary

to include and develop an environment by:

• Introducing effective practices that encourage barrier removal, as long as those material or non-material obstacles limit a secure and sustainable inclusive and intercultural education

• Implementing academic programs for university students to increase their knowledge and under-standing of inclusive and intercultural competences

• Improving pre- and in-service teacher training, mentorship and team-building in order to share emotional attitudes, and inclusion and intercultural experiences, and

• Developing inclusive competencies about shared educational leadership based on cooperation and coordination among all members of the educational community

CONCLUSION

Index for Inclusion had made it possible to share a sensitive and appropriate point of view of inclusive

culture, policies and practices Index for Inclusion dimensions and sections are suitable to be used in

order to analyse and interpret the approval of social inclusion principles and values among students of Degrees in Education and Pedagogy at the University of La Laguna

As a general conclusion, the initial hypotheses – which claimed that social inclusion for future student teachers may be influenced by variables like gender, age, intercultural experience and experience with different people – were accepted

Particularly, data revealed existing differences between students due to age, regardless of degrees: the older the student teacher is and the longer experience he or she has, the higher predisposition towards inclusiveness and the better recognition of barriers to learning and participation

REFERENCES

Aguado, T (2004) Investigación en educación intercultural Educatio Siglo XXI, 22(0), 39–58.

Ainscow, M (1999) Understanding the Development of Inclusive Schools London: Falmer.

Ainscow, M (2002) Using research to encourage the development of inclusive practices In P Farrell

& M Ainscow (Eds.), Making Special Education Inclusive: from Research to Practice (pp 25–37)

London: David Fulton