Abstract:

The readiness for inclusion and the way it is implemented varies across the European Union (EU) countries, but the advantage of a similar cultural environment is the opportunity to compare and be inspired by each other in implementing effective strategies to facilitate the process of inclusion. The only way to compare countries is through the use of the same measurement tools. The results of The Multidimensional Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) questionnaire, although it has been used in some scientific studies in Slovakia, have not yet been compared with other EU countries. The aim of this paper is to present the psychometric properties of the MATIES questionnaire and to compare the attitude of teachers in Slovakia with selected studies that have been conducted under similar conditions in selected EU countries. The research was carried out in 6 primary schools in Slovakia, the respondents were 167 teachers (24 male, 143 female) who filled it out electronically. The reliability results of the individual subscales of the questionnaire, which capture the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitude, were represented by Cronbach's alpha (CA) as follows: CA (cognitive subscale) = 0,748; CA (affective subscale) = 0,817; CA (behavioral subscale) = 0,839. These values and the inter-subscale correlations are consistent with the original study and the Slovak version of the measurement instrument can be considered suitable and valid for further research investigations.

Keywords:

Attitudes toward inclusion, attitudes toward inclusion measurement instrument, The Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale, MATIES, reliability.