Abstract:

Attitudes and teachers training are two key factors for the implementation of the inclusion principle in schools. Despite the fact that in Spain political measures have supported inclusion in classrooms for more than a quarter century, it seems that this principle is effective only on a theoretical level. This study aims to assess if pre-service secondary teachers have positive attitudes towards diversity and to what extent these students consider their initial training promotes awareness to this issue. To that purpose, a total of 89 students enrolled on the Teacher Training Master’s degree for Secondary Education of the University of Alicante completed a closed online questionnaire in Likert scale. The data were processed with the support of the quantitative data analysis software SPSS .21. The participants’ contributions reveal that although the majority of them recognised the importance of inclusion and they were concerned about it, there existed certain contradictions in their answers. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that most of them highlighted they had received education on this subject in the Master’s degree, raising these studies their interest towards diversity and favouring an increase of their vocation. However, they claimed not to feel empowered to attend diversity in the classroom properly which means it is necessary to increase theoretical and practical contents in the curriculum of the Master’s degree.

Keywords:

Secondary teachers’ training, Secondary Education, diversity outreach, inclusive education, secondary teachers’ attitudes.