Examining the relationship between physical education teachers' compassion levels and their attitudes towards disabled people

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the compassion levels of Physical Education teachers and their attitudes toward individuals with disabilities. In this research, a causal-comparative design, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was employed. The population of the study consists of 127 Physical Education teachers, including 75 males and 52 females, working in public and private schools in Adıyaman during the 2023–2024 academic year. Within the scope of the study, a personal information form prepared by the researcher (including gender, age, educational background, professional experience, type of school, years of service at the current school, presence of a disabled individual in the family, and whether they have received training on disabilities), as well as the Compassion Scale and the Attitudes Toward Individuals with Disabilities Scale, were used as data collection tools. The scales and forms were transferred to an online platform, allowing Physical Education teachers to respond to the questions in a digital environment. The data obtained were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0 software program. In the study, distribution analysis, descriptive analysis, and parametric hypothesis tests, including the independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, were conducted. Additionally, the Scheffé test was used to determine differences between groups. When the overall results obtained from the study were examined, no significant differences were found in the compassion scale scores of Physical Education teachers based on gender, age, educational background, type of school, or the presence of a disabled individual in the family. However, significant differences were observed in relation to professional experience, length of service at their current institution, and whether they had received training on sports education for individuals with disabilities. When examining the total scores obtained by Physical Education teachers on the attitude scale toward individuals with disabilities, no significant differences were found in the variables of gender, age, professional experience, school type, whether there is a disabled individual in the family, and whether they have received training in sports education for individuals with disabilities. However, significant differences were found in the variables of educational status and the length of time working at the institution. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that as the level of compassion of physical education teachers increases, their attitudes toward individuals with disabilities also improve; however, this relationship is observed to be weak.