From normalisation to inclusion: effects on pre-service teachers’ willingness to teach in inclusive classes

Teachers’ willingness to teach in inclusive classrooms consists of their intention and readiness to include students with a disability into their classes. This article reports on a qualitative pilot study examining how pre-service teachers understand the essence of including students with disability and how willing they are to engage in inclusive teaching. Partially structured interviews were held with 18 pre-service teachers in various training years and types of training programme. The findings show the distinction between willingness to help students with disability and willingness to apply inclusive teaching. It turns out that the willingness to engage in inclusive teaching, as declared by the pre-service-teachers, suits the normalisation principle rather than current inclusion principle based on the more up-to-date approach of inclusive classes. This distinction may explain the causes of difficulty in applying the inclusion policy in education systems.