Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes of regular school teachers and teachers of physically handicapped children toward the integration of handicapped children into regular schools. The sample included 178 teachers at regular primary schools, 198 teachers at regular junior high schools, and 126 teachers at schools for physically handicapped children. A two-part questionnaire was used. In the first part, questions were designed to measure general awareness of the integration of handicapped children into regular classes. For example, some questions asked about the teachers' knowledge about, interest in, and agreement with integration. Other questions asked for the teachers' feelings about the necessity of integration and the possibility of its development. Questions in the second part were designed to measure the degree of acceptance in regular classes of three types of handicapped children: children placed in a regular class since starting elementary school (T1); children starting elementary school in a regular class, but, in the middle of elementary school, transferred to a special school (T2); and children enrolled in a special school from school entry to the present (T3). The results showed that only the teachers at schools for physically handicapped children expressed strong interest in integrating such children into regular classes. However, regular primary school teachers were more in agreement with such integration than were regular junior high school teachers. All the teachers were more supportive of accepting the T1 and T2 children in regular classes than the children whose whole school career had been in special schools (T3). The regular school teachers raised different concerns about accepting T1 children than did teachers at special schools for physically handicapped children. On the whole, however, all three types of teachers responded similarly to the questions about acceptance of the three types of children into regular classes. The present authors' point is that this similarity must be considered as follows: the teachers at schools for physically handicapped children regarded the present regular schools as suitable places for educating handicapped children as realistically as did the teachers at regular schools.
