Investigation of preschool teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education in terms of prosocial behaviors

This study aimed to examine preschool teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education in terms of prosocial behaviors. The research was conducted in the correlational survey model. The study included 198 preschool teachers working in public and private preschool education institutions in the 2021-2022 academic year. "Personal Information Form", "Attitude Scale for Inclusive Education", "Self-Efficacy Perceptions Scale for Inclusive Education", "Classroom Practices Scale for Inclusive Education" and "Adult Prosociality Scale" were used as data collection tools. The normality of the research data was tested and parametric analyses were preferred since the normality of distribution was ensured. Pearson correlation coefficient, Hierarchical Regression analysis, Independent Group t-Test and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) techniques were used to analyze the research data. According to the results obtained from the research findings, it was determined that there was a significant positive correlation between preschool teachers' adult prosociality scale scores and their attitude scale scores towards inclusive education, self-efficacy scale scores towards inclusive education and classroom practices scale scores towards inclusive education. According to the results of other findings, no significant difference was found between the scores of the adult prosociality scale in terms of the sex, marital status, the institution they work in, their position in the institution, the presence/absence of individuals with special needs in the family, the status of having a special education certificate, the status of taking an inclusion course at the university, and the status of teachers taking any course on inclusive education at the university, the status of receiving/not receiving any training on inclusive education in professional life, receiving/not receiving any seminar on inclusive education, having/not having disadvantaged children in the classroom, and educational status. It was determined that there was a significant difference between the adult prosociality scores of the pre-school teachers included in the research, depending on their willingness/inability to participate in the focus group discussion on inclusive education and the socioeconomic status of the school.