Inclusive education in Luxembourg: implicit and explicit attitudes toward inclusion and students with special educational needs

peer reviewedThe aim of the current study was to investigate attitudes of Luxemburgish adults toward students with special educational needs (SEN) and their inclusion into mainstream schools. Positive attitudes can facilitate inclusion, furthering the acceptance of students with SEN. Implicit and explicit attitudes may have differential impact on behaviour toward students with SEN, however, to date, there is little research combining explicit and implicit attitudes measurement tools. Participants (N = 161) completed an evaluative priming task, the Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education in the Population questionnaire as well as the German version of the Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale. Results show that participants expressed positive attitudes toward inclusive education in general. Participantś implicit attitudes toward students with differing types of SEN varied, with neutral attitudes toward students with learning difficulties and negative attitudes toward students with challenging behaviour. In addition, participantś explicit attitudes toward the inclusion of students with learning difficulties or challenging behaviour in mainstream classrooms were negative. In sum, although people may support the general idea of inclusion, when asked about their attitudes toward students with specific types of SEN, and the inclusion of these students in mainstream schools, participantś attitudes were rather negative. The implications of these findings for the inclusion and acceptance of students with SEN in education and society are discussed