Leadership and Inclusive Education: School Principals' Role in Supporting the inclusion of Disabled Student in mainstream education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/ejie.v3i1.142505Keywords:
educational leadership, inclusive education, students with disability, instrument validation, school principals’ values, practices, knowledge, beliefs, attitudesAbstract
This paper presents part of a broader, large-scale study regarding educational leadership towards inclusive education of disabled students in Greece, highlighting the school principals’ potentially decisive role. Specifically, it investigates Greek school principals’ knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and practices regarding the inclusive education of disabled students in their school-units, as well as their values, examining a) whether there are statistically significant correlations between the aforementioned variables, b) and between these and the school principals’ socio-demographic and professional characteristics. The data were collected through an original questionnaire validated for the Greek context, that was electronically administered to a representative stratified sample of 582 school-principals from 334 primary and 248 secondary Greek schools. The results indicate multiple and multi-layered relationships between the examined variables; and most notably that specific values (benevolence, universalism, self-direction & stimulation) promote the implementation of inclusive education while others (security, tradition, conformity, achievement & power) hinder it. Understanding the relationships between school principals’ knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and practices regarding the education of disabled students and their values may contribute significantly to the promotion of inclusive education. However, the direction and strength of these relationships needs to be further explored to shed more light on the influence of educational leadership.
References
Bailey, J. (2004). The validation of scale to measure school-principals’ attitudes toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools. Australian Psychologist, 39 (1): 76-87. Doi:10.1080/00050060410001660371
Bakalbasi E., & Fokas E. (2014). Views of school principals of primary and secondary education on their selection system and their management training [In Greek], Research in Education, 2, 145-166. https://doi.org/10.12681/hjre.8840
Billingsley, B., DeMatthews, D., Connally, K., & McLeskey, J. (2018). Leadership for Effective Inclusive Schools: Considerations for Preparation and Reform, Australasian Journal of Special and Inclusive Education, 42(1), 65-81. doi:10.1017/jsi.2018.6
Black R. W. & Simon D. M., (2014). Leadership for All Students: Planning for More Inclusive School Practices, NCPEA International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 9(2), 153-172.
Cassimos, D. C., Polychronopoulou, S. A., Tripsianis, G. I., & Syriopoulou-Delli, C. K. (2015). Views and attitudes of teachers on the educational integration of students with autism spectrum disorders, Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 18(4), 241-251.
Cohen, E. (2015). Principal Leadership Styles and Teacher and Principal Attitudes, Concerns and Competencies regarding Inclusion. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186 : 758-764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.105
DeMatthews, D.E., Billingsley, B., McLeskey, J. & Sharma, U. (2020). Principal leadership for students with disabilities in effective inclusive schools, Journal of Educational Administration, 58(5), 539-554. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2019-0177
DeMatthews, D. E., Kotok, S., & Serafini, A. (2019). Leadership Preparation for Special Education and Inclusive Schools: Beliefs and Recommendations from Successful Principals. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 15(4), 303-329. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942775119838308
DiPrete, T.A. & Buchmann, C. (2013). The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What It Means for American Schools. Russell Sage Foundation. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610448000
Fyssa, A., Vlachou, A. & Avramidis, E. (2014). Early childhood teachers' understanding of inclusive education and associated practices: reflections from Greece, International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(2), 223-237. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2014.909309
Graham, L.J. (2020). Inclusive Education for the 21st Century. Theory, Policy and Practice. Routledge.
Haug, P., (2017). Understanding inclusive education: ideals and reality, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 19(3), 206-217. http://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2016.1224778
Hess, I. & Zamir, S. (2016). Principals and Inclusion: The Correlation between Attitudes of Principals and Teachers towards Inclusion of Pupils with Special Needs, Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals, 12 (2).
Khaleel, N. Alhosani, M. & Duyar, I. (2021) The Role of School Principals in Promoting Inclusive Schools: A Teachers’ Perspective, Frontiers in Education, 6:603241. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.603241
Koşar, D., Altunay, E., & Yalçinkaya, M. (2014). The difficulties of female primary school administrators in the administration process and solution suggestions, Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri, 14(3), 905-919. 10.12738/estp.2014.3.2067
Kyriakoussis, Α., & Saiti, Α. (2006). Underrepresentation of Women in Public Primary School Administration: The experience of Greece, International Electronic Journal for Leadership in Learning, 10, 1-13. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/iejll/index.php/iejll/article/view/605
Lambrecht, J., Lenkeit, J., Hartmann, A., Ehlert, A., Knigge, M. & Spörer, N. (2022). The effect of school leadership on implementing inclusive education: how transformational and instructional leadership practices affect individualized education planning. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(9), 943-957. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2020.1752825
Lazaridou, A. (2019). Exploring the Values of Educators in Greek Schools. Research in Educational Administration and Leadership, 4 (2), 231-270. Doi:10.30828/real/2019.2.2
MacRuairc, G., Ottesen, E. & Precey, R. (2013). Leadership for Inclusive Education. Values, Vision and Voices. Sense Publishers
Majoko, T. (2017). Inclusion in Early Childhood Education: a Zimbabwean perspective, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 21(12), 1210-1227. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1335354
Muega, M. (2019). Inclusive Education in the Philippines: Through the Eyes of Teachers, Administrators, and Parents of Children with Special Needs, Social Sciences Diliman, 12(1), 5-28.
Neves, C., Almeida, A.P. & Ferreira, M. (2023). Headteachers and Inclusion: Setting the Tone for an Inclusive School, Education Sciences, 13(2), 129. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13020129
Oliver, M. (1990). The Politics of Disablement. Macmillan
Odongo, G., & Davidson, R.C. (2016). Examining the Attitudes and Concerns of the Kenyan Teachers toward the Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in the General Education Classroom: A Mixed Methods Study, International journal of special education, 31(2), 1-30. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:157740150
Oskarsdottir, E., Donnelly, V., Turner-Cmuchal, M., & Florian, L. (2020). Inclusive school leaders: Their role in raising the achievement of all learners, Journal of Educational Administration, 58(5), 521–537. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2019-0190
Pavlopoulos, B. (2014). Crisis of the values or the values of the crisis: Stability and change of personal and political values in Greece of the recession. Psychology, 21 (3): 334-353. https://doi.org/10.12681/psy_hps.23502
Pazey, B. & Combes, B. (2020). Principals’ and School Leaders’ Roles in Inclusive Education, Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Education [online]. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1215
Pazey, B. L., Gevarter, C., Hamrick, J., & Rojeski, L. (2014). Administrator views and knowledge of instructional practices for students with autism spectrum disorders, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 8(10), 1253-1268.
Platsidou, M. & Tsiolpidou, X. (2019). Attitudes and Concerns of Primary School Principals About Educational Integration. Epistimes Agogis, 2, 89-113. Available online: https://ejournals.lib.uoc.gr/index.php/edusci/article/view/594 (accessed on 5 March 2020). [In Greek].
Pregot M., (2021). Principals’ Depth of Perception of Knowledge on Special Education Programs: How Much Do They Really Know?, International Journal of Educational Reform, 00(0) 1–18. DOI: 10.1177/1056787920967114
Riehl, C.J. (2000). The principal’s role in creating inclusive schools for diverse students: A review of normative, empirical and critical literature on the practices of educational administration. Review of Educational Research, 70 (1), 55-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022057409189001-213
Saloviita, T. (2022). Teachers’ Changing Attitudes and Preferences around Inclusive Education, International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 69(6), 1841-1858, https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2020.1828569
Schwartz, S. H. (2010). Basic values: How they motivate and inhibit prosocial behavior, In M. Mikulincer, & P. R. Shaver (Eds), Prosocial motives, emotions, and behavior: The better angels of our nature, (pp. 221-241). American Psychological Association.
Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values, Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116
Schwartz, S. H., Melech, G., Lehmann, A., Burgess, S., Harris, M., & Owens, V. (2001). Extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32 (5), 519-542. Doi:10.1177/0022022101032005001
Slee, R. (2011). The irregular school: Exclusion, schooling and inclusive education. Routledge.
Slee, R. (2019). Belonging in an age of exclusion, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23 (9): 909-922. Doi: 10.1080/13603116.2019.1602366
Sun A. & Xin J. (2020). School principals’ opinions about special education services, Preventing School Failure, Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 64 (2), 106-115. https://doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2019.1681354
Theoharis, G., Causton, J., & Woodfield, C. (2015). Inclusive leadership and disability, In G. Theoharis, & M. Scanlan (Eds), Leadership for increasingly diverse schools, (pp. 13-38). Taylor and Francis.
Titrek, O., Bayrakcı, M. & Nguluma, H. (2017). School Administrators' Attitudes toward Inclusion of Children with Disabilities In the General Education Classrooms, İnternational Journal on Lifelong Education and Leadership. 3(2), 1-12. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ijlel/issue/39626/468925
Ugwu, C. J., & Onukwufor J. N. (2018). Investigation of Principals’ Attitude towards Inclusion of Special Needs Students in Public and Private Secondary Schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 6, 1-7. 10.12691/ajap-6-1-1.
Vlachou, A. (2004). Education and inclusive policy-making: implications for research and practice. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 8 (1), 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360311032000139449
Vlachou, A. (2023). Introductory note: Inclusive Education Matters, In L. Graham & A. Vlachou (Eds.), Inclusive Education for the 21st Century. Theory, Policy and Practice, (pp. 11-26) [In Greek]. Pedio
Vlachou, A., Didaskalou E., & Papananou, I. (2012). Conceptual approaches to disability and their implications for the education of people with disabilities, In A. Zoniou-Sideri, E. Deropoulou-Derou, & A. Vlachou-Balafouti (Eds.), Disability and educational policy: A critical approach to special and inclusive education of education, (pp.65-89). Pedio.[In Greek]
Vlachou, A., Karadimou, S., & Koutsogeorgou, E. (2016). Exploring the views and beliefs of parents of typically developing children about inclusion and inclusive education, Educational Research, 58(4), 384-399. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2016.1232918
Vlachou A. & Tsirantonaki S.S. (2023). The Importance of School Principals’ Values towards the Inclusive Education of Disabled Students: Associations between Their Values and Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes and Practices. Education Sciences, 13(4), 360. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040360
Wakeman, S.Y., Browder, D., Flowers, Cl. & Ahlgrim-Delzell, L. (2006). Principals' knowledge of fundamental and current issues in special education, NASSP Bulletin, 90 (4), 153-174. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263650609000409
Workman, A. M. (2016). The Attitudes of School Principals Toward the Inclusion of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in General Education Setting. [Dissertation Thesis]. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/71821/Workman_AM_D_2016.pdf
Zoniou-Sideri, A. (2018). Inclusive education and disabled pupils in Greek schools: promoting human rights or a new form of exclusion, In A. Z. Giotsa (Ed.), Human rights in a changing world: Research and applied approaches, (pp. 195-216). Nova Science Publishers.
Zoniou-Sideri A., Lampropoulou K., Papastavrinidou G., Tsermidou L., & Christopoulou A. (2020). Differentiated pedagogy & inclusive education: theoretical highlights, concerns and perspectives. Dialogues! Theory and Practice in Educational Sciences, 6, 61-76. [In Greek] https://doi.org/10.12681/dial.23334
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Smaragdi Tsirantonaki, Prof. Vlachou
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License (full legal code).
