Exploring Pre-Service Teachers' Perceived Teaching-Efficacy, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education in Bangladesh

This paper reports on pre-service teachers' preparedness for inclusive education in Bangladesh through measuring their perceived teaching-efficacy, concerns and attitudes towards inclusive education and identifying predictor variables that contribute to those three variables. Using two standardized scales with 1,623 pre-service teachers from 16 teachers training institutions, it was found that variables such as length of training, gender, interaction with persons with disabilities, knowledge about local legislation, and level of training involved had significant relationship with participants' perceived teaching-efficacy, attitudes and concerns. In addition, it was also found that pre-service teachers' perceived teaching-efficacy is correlated to their attitudes towards inclusive education. This study also revealed that pre-service teachers having higher perceived teaching-efficacy showed lower level of concerns towards inclusive education. Implications of this study for further improvement of pre-service teacher education program for inclusive education are briefly discussed. (Contains 2 tables.)