Its greatest benefit of inclusion is its challenge”: Efl teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of learners with disabilities

Abstract

Inclusion has long been a hotbed for debate in many educational fields but TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). To the best knowledge of the research, no study has been conducted on the issue of inclusion in Iran, especially considering EFL learners with special needs. Considering teachers as the central pillar of the inclusive education, the present study sought to investigate EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers' attitudes towards the inclusion of physically-impaired EFL learners in English language classes. To this end, a comprehensive survey was conducted using the 25-item Opinions Relative to Mainstreaming (ORM) scale (Antonak & Larrivee, 1995) to collect data from 254 Iranian EFL teachers, of whom 30 teachers were subsequently interviewed to guarantee the triangulation of the findings. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, with the SPSS Software version 20 being used for the quantitative analysis. Findings indicating the Iranian EFL teachers’ neutral-topositive attitudes are thoroughly discussed in this paper. The paper also contains some information about the perceived benefits/challenges of inclusion, its pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research.