BRAC Primary School Teachers’ Teaching-efficacy, Attitude, Sentiment and Concern towards Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Regular Classrooms in Bangladesh

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.03.1.4

Tanjilut Tasnuba^a and Diana Tsokova^b

^aDeputy Manager, Social Innovation Lab, BRAC, Dhaka, Bangladesh
^bSenior Lecturer in Psychology of Special Needs in Primary Education, UCL Institute of Education, London, United Kingdom

(Received 15 February 2015, Final revised version received 31 July 2015)

BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) is the largest non-governmental organisation in Bangladesh that is involved in the provision of education to 6,74,229 children, including 25,637 children with disabilities (BEP, 2014). The aim of the research reported in this paper is to explore BRAC Primary School teachers’ teaching efficacy, attitude, sentiment and concern towards the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular classrooms in order to inform future efforts and developments with inclusive education. 400 randomly selected BRAC primary school teachers from 48 districts of 7 regions of Bangladesh participated in this research. The Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practice (TEIP) and Sentiments, Attitudes, Concerns regarding Inclusive Education-Revised (SACIE-R) (Sharma, Loreman, & Forlin, 2012; Forlin, Loreman, & Sharma, 2011) scales were utilities in this study along with a demographic questionnaire. The results show that BRAC teachers have relatively high level of overall teaching efficacy, moderately positive attitude and generally low concern towards inclusion of children with disabilities. The study found no significant relationship between the background and demographic variables used for this study and BRAC teachers’ teaching efficacy and attitude. The study also revealed a significant difference in BRAC teachers’ concern based on students’ disability type, and a significant positive relationship between teaching efficacy and attitude and concern. Based on the findings, the study suggests further collaboration between government and BRAC to create the conditions for higher teacher efficacy and positive attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities providing school support, resources and extensive training opportunities.

Keywords: BRAC, primary schools, teaching-efficacy, attitude, sentiment, concern, inclusive education, regular school, Bangladesh