Abstract:

Education should help individuals socialize and transfer their culture to next generations while enabling systematic and early integration of each individual into social life, including individuals with special needs as well. All children have the right to receive education and all stakeholders working at the school should have acceptance and supporting attitudes towards students who need special education. The aim of the present study is to examine the attitudes of supportive staff in preschools towards inclusion practice. A description method was employed. The study sample included 50 staff members working in 5 private and 6 state-funded preschools in the city center of Muş. "The Attitudes towards Inclusion in Preschool Scale" developed by Özbaba (2000) and "Demographics Form" developed by the researchers were used for the data collection. Independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were employed for the data analysis. In addition, the Scheffe test was performed to test the significance of the difference between the participants. The results showed that attitudes towards inclusion did not differ by gender, age, profession, having or not having observed an individual requiring special education and educational background related to inclusion. However, the attitudes towards inclusive practices differed significantly by willingness to receive training and educational background.

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