Inclusive education in Luxembourg: implicit and explicit attitudes toward inclusion and students with special educational needs

The aim of the current study was to investigate attitudes of
Luxemburgish adults toward students with special educational
needs (SEN) and their inclusion into mainstream schools. Positive
attitudes can facilitate inclusion, furthering the acceptance of
students with SEN. Implicit and explicit attitudes may have
differential impact on behaviour toward students with SEN,
however, to date, there is little research combining explicit and
implicit attitudes measurement tools. Participants (N = 161)
completed an evaluative priming task, the Attitudes Toward
Inclusive Education in the Population questionnaire as well as the
German version of the Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale.
Results show that participants expressed positive attitudes toward
inclusive education in general. Participantś implicit attitudes
toward students with differing types of SEN varied, with neutral
attitudes toward students with learning difficulties and negative
attitudes toward students with challenging behaviour. In addition,
participantś explicit attitudes toward the inclusion of students
with learning difficulties or challenging behaviour in mainstream
classrooms were negative. In sum, although people may support
the general idea of inclusion, when asked about their attitudes
toward students with specific types of SEN, and the inclusion of
these students in mainstream schools, participantś attitudes were
rather negative. The implications of these findings for the
inclusion and acceptance of students with SEN in education and
society are discussed.