Core Content Teachers’ Prepardeness and Perception of Inclusive Education in Central Ohio Schools

by Crumbacher, Christine Ann

The purpose of this study was to survey core content teachers’ (CCTs) perceptions of working with children with disabilities in the subject areas of English, math, science and social studies in two school districts (referred to as school district 1 and 2). The survey consisted of 3 subscales: internal, external and social and were formatted in a Likert-type scale. The research questions in this study are: 1.) Do CCTs feel prepared to teach students with disabilities across districts and buildings based on the internal subscale? 2.) Do schools prepare CCTs to teach students with disabilities across districts and buildings based on the external subscale? 3.) Do CCTs see social improvements in students with disabilities across districts and buildings based on the social subscale? 4.) Does subject taught by the CCT have an overall effect on how inclusion is perceived based on the internal and external subscales? 5.) Do age, gender, degree awarded and district influence the way CCTs perceive inclusion based on the external subscale. With a significance level = .05, the perceptions of CCTs regarding how their school districts prepare them to teach students with disabilities are influenced by gender (p-value = .0149) and marginally by school district (p-value = .0804). Degree, age or building types did not have important influences on these perceptions. No other significant results were observed.