Do Teachers’ Role Beliefs Contribute to Their Beliefs of Inclusive Education?

Abstract

Teachers’ role beliefs reflect their innate core values in the profession of teaching. In this paper, the role beliefs of a sample of mainstream teachers in Saudi Arabia were investigated using a metaphoric approach. The teachers were asked to rate metaphoric statements that best reflected their role beliefs. From the responses provided by 44 mainstream teachers in this study, protective and facilitating role orientations were found to be more dominant among them as compared to behavioural and self-referencing role orientations. Subsequent analysis pointed to self-referencing role orientation as a salient predictor of rigid belief about teaching and learning and also negative belief about inclusive education. The findings offer empirical evidence that the salience of a non-constructive view of teaching and learning is a major hindrance for teachers to develop positive beliefs about inclusive education. On the other hand, teachers’ beliefs about their roles in supporting students with learning difficulties to learn and develop knowledge are likely to go hand in hand with their positive beliefs about inclusive education.