Research has provided evidence that most studies of teacher attitudes toward inclusion tend to include a mix of elementary, secondary, and high school teachers and they tend to study topics such as attitudes, prior experience, training needs, support needs, and teacher/student/school attributes. For example, Wall (2002) studied teachers from each of these schools (elementary, secondary, and high school) and determined that teachers were more comfortable with inclusion and teaching special needs students when they had prior experience with this group. Other studies support the need for training to be comfortable with inclusion of special needs students in the classroom (Jobe, Rust, & Brissie, 1996; Singh, 2002). General teachers report needing support and communication with special education teachers to help special needs children (Heflin & Bullock, 1999). The type of disability, student characteristics, and school climate are related to teacher attitudes toward inclusion (Soodak, Podell, & Lehman, 1998).
Findings related to the topic of inclusion are mixed. Leyser and Tappendorf (2001) found that attitudes toward mainstreaming are not favorable or unfavorable. These authors also found that general and special education teachers differed in their methods; general education teachers tended not to implement the strategies that are needed to deal with special needs students while special education teachers did. Findings related to secondary schools are few in number, but results show that there may be differences in teacher attitudes based on teacher age and whether the teacher is an elementary or secondary school teacher. In one study, teacher age was a factor in willingness to participate in inclusion services, with older teachers being more resistant and elementary school teachers refused techniques while high school teachers reacted to the topic of inclusion with dead silence when a special education teacher presented the ...