The relationship between school administrators' attitudes towards mainstreaming education and schools' competence towards inclusion practices

The general aim of this research is to determine the relationship between school administrators' attitudes towards inclusive education and the adequacy of schools' implementation of inclusive practices. The study, conducted for this purpose, was designed using the relational survey model, one of the descriptive research models. The study group of the research consists of 101 school administrators who are implementing inclusive programs and were determined using convenience sampling methods in the provinces of Bolu and Düzce. Data for the research were collected using the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale, Competence Scale for Inclusıve Educatıon Practıces of Schools, and a General Information Form. Mann Whitney U test and Spearman Brown rank correlation technique were used for data analysis. As a result of the research, it was found that school administrators' attitudes towards inclusive education are moderately positive, and their concerns are at a moderate level. It was also found that the overall adequacy of schools' implementation of inclusive practices is high. Furthermore, as the adequacy of schools' implementation of inclusive practices increases, school administrators' concerns about inclusive education decrease. It was determined that school administrators' concerns about inclusive education vary significantly depending on whether they have taken undergraduate or graduate courses related to special education and inclusion, as well as whether they have received in-service training related to special education and inclusion. Additionally, the adequacy of schools' implementation of inclusive practices varies according to various variables.