Abstract:

Teachers' attitudes towards pupils with special educational needs have emerged as one of the most influential elements for the achievement of socio-educational inclusion. The teaching-learning process and the school socialisation of such students are strongly mediated by the representations that teachers have on the educational treatment of diversity. Therefore, this study aims to look into the thoughts of future teachers as far as addressing attention to diversity is concerned, as well as the value they attach to the socialisation for improving the educational process of students with special learning needs. For this purpose, it has counted on the participation of 34 students enrolled on the Teacher Training Degree for Primary Education of the University of Alicante (Spain). They completed a semi-structured questionnaire with four open-ended questions, aimed at the recognition of teacher’s attitudes towards educational attention and the importance socialisation plays regarding diversity. The qualitative analysis program AQUAD 6 was used for the treatment of the data. The analysis of the results evidences that, although most teachers in training recognizes that socialisation should become one of the main focuses of educational intervention, the educational process of such students constitutes a challenge. Thus, students recognise having both curiosity and a lack of professional security. Against this background, reorienting the training plans and providing teachers with the necessary skills to meet the challenges of diversity becomes necessary.

Keywords:

Teacher training, diversity outreach, teachers’ attitudes, socialisation, learning process.