The measurement of teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education: An empirical study in East Java, Indonesia

Abstract The three inclusive schools in West Sumatra Province, which were formed in 2002, is proof that Indonesia has implemented an inclusive education system. Until now, the benchmark for the success of implementation in East Java has not been measured. The method that can be done is to measure teacher attitudes toward inclusive education. In this study, the ITAIE scale was used to measure their attitudes towards inclusive education. The current study investigated 1477 teachers in the inclusive school in East Java, including kindergarten, elementary, junior high, and senior high school levels. This study found that the attitude of East Java teachers towards inclusive education was positive (61.1%). The factors that influence the positive attitude of teachers toward inclusive education are the level of the school where the teacher works. Teachers who work at the kindergarten level are more favorable than teachers who work at other school levels. In addition, the experience of teaching in inclusive schools also plays an important role. The longer they teach, the more positive their attitude towards inclusive education. Also, teachers who have participated in training programs in inclusive education have a more positive attitude than teachers who have not yet attended the training.

This study aims to measure the level of teacher attitude towards inclusive education in East Java.The measurement uses the ITAIE (Indonesian Teachers' Attitudes toward Inclusive Education) scale which can indeed be used in Indonesia considering the conditions of Indonesia which are different from other countries.This study found that Indonesian teachers tend to have positive attitudes toward inclusive education and the factors that influence the attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education are the level of the school where the teacher works, the length of teaching experience in inclusive schools, and the participation of teachers in inclusive education training programs.

Introduction
The Indonesian Government's Regulations contained in the "Regulation of the National Education Minister of the Republic of Indonesia" Number 70 Year 2009 concerning inclusive education is the Indonesian government evidence to handling inclusive education system (E.Ediyanto et al., 2017).This is a continuation of the establishment of three pilot inclusion schools in 2002 in West Sumatra Province (Firdaus, 2010).Furthermore, in 2004, Indonesia held a national convention by producing the Bandung Declaration with Indonesia's commitment to realize inclusive education.To fulfill the rights of children with special needs to learn, in 2005 an international symposium was held in Bukittinggi, Indonesia by producing the Bukittinggi Recommendation, which among others emphasized the need to continue to develop inclusive education programs as a way of ensuring that all children receive a quality and decent education.
East Java is one of the provinces in Indonesia that actively participates in providing inclusive education.The existence of inclusive schools has been supported by government regulations of East Java No. 6 of 2011 on the "Implementation of Inclusive Education."Article 2 Chapter 2 (East Java Regulation, No. 6, 2011) stated that the purpose of inclusive education is to provide the widest possible opportunity for all students who have physical, emotional, mental, and social disabilities or have the potential for intelligence and/or special talent to obtain quality education in accordance with their needs and abilities.However, based on a case study that was conducted by Ishartiwi (2010) and E. Ediyanto et al. (2017), the implementation of inclusive education is still having problems, for example, not all teachers have the competence and the knowledge to teach students with special education needs (SEN).Ishartiwi (2010) points out the following problems in implementing inclusive education in Indonesia: (1) it is difficult to adjust the relationship between the current standards of regular school services and the various learning needs of students with SEN and (2) schools have not been able to provide appropriate programs for students with SEN.In addition, E. Ediyanto et al. (2017) point out that not all teachers know the appropriate methods for teaching students with SEN.
Although there are many instruments to assess teachers' attitude globally, there are only a few studies that have investigated especially Indonesian teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education, and the studies that do exist are flawed.For example, research conducted by Kurniawati et al. (2012) employed instrument "the nature of attitudes" by Eagly and Chaiken (1993) that were developed more than ten years ago.Meanwhile, a study by Kristiana and Widayanti (2017) does not mention which instrument was used to measure teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.In addition, they use instruments without checking whether they are appropriate in the Indonesian context.Therefore, more research needs to be conducted to determine Indonesian teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.
The Indonesian Teachers' Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Instrument (ITAIE) scale is an instrument that can measure teacher attitudes towards inclusive education in Indonesia because there are no instruments were adapted to the Indonesian setting (E.Ediyanto et al., 2022).This instrument was developed in accordance with the Indonesian context and has 22 items consisting of three dimensions of attitude namely cognitive, affective and behavior (Ediyanto, 2020).Some studies have distinguished three types of attitudes that can occur alone or in combination with each other: affective, behavioral, and cognitive (Guillén-Gámez & Mayorga-Fernández, 2020;Zhang et al., 2021).The affective basis of an attitude is made up of feelings, moods, and emotions that have become associated with the attitudinal object through past or current experiences.The cognitive basis consists of particular attributes ascribed to the object.The behavioral basis includes two kinds of information: past behaviors and intentions to commit future behaviors (Bizer et al., 2003).
Previous studies revealed that Indonesian primary school teachers tend to have a positive attitude toward inclusion (Kurniawati et al., 2012;Maulia & Kurniawati, 2018).Study by Kurniawati et al. (2012) was aimed to exaine primary school teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education in Jakarta, the findings showed that teachers support inclusion, and their viewpoints appear to be influenced by their special education background and experiences as teachers.Positive attitudes studies were also found among teachers in other countries (Diery et al., 2020;Karacabey et al., 2019).Karacabey study was aimed to determine the teachers' attitudes toward multicultural education and suggested more research is necessary to understand how to create, modify lesson plans and programs to accommodate multicultural education and why teachers of some courses are more supportive of multicultural education.Study by Diery shows that teacher educators with more research and teaching experience use evidence more frequently and have a more positive attitude toward evidence-based practice.Based on the above explanation, it is very important to know the East Java teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.The results of this study can provide information on the success of inclusive education in this province.The purpose of this study is to percieve East Java teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education using ITAIE scale instrument.Therefore, methods for assisting teachers in carrying out inclusive practices effectively can be developed.In addition, gender differences and interactions with students with special education needs have been measured.

Method
This research is a survey research with quantitative approach.The instrument used for the survey is the ITAIE scale.ITAIE scale use a five-point Likert scale which mean to assess teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education studies have used five response categories (e.g., Stoiber et al., 1998;Gregory and Noto, 2012).The labels for the five points range from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".This scale consist of six components that was developed into 22 items that can be used as survey instrument toward teachers, including: (1) Creating an accepting environment for all students (3 items; number 1-3); 2) Problem students with SEN in the inclusive classroom (4 items; number 4-7); 3) Professional responsibilities in Inclusive Education (4 items; number 8-11); 4) Professional knowledge about Inclusive Education (3 items; number 12-14); 5) Implication  of Inclusive Education (3 items; number 15-17); and 6) Inclusive Education perspective in Indonesia (5 items; number 18-22).Furthermore, these six components have been included in three dimensions of attitude, namely cognitive, affective, and behavioral.
The ITAIE scale that contained 22 items (see on Table 1) are valid and reliable (Ediyanto, 2020).The first validation process was carried out by five experts, of whom two have doctoral degrees, and the other three have master's degrees.The second validation process, the construct validity was confirmed through an initial principal component analysis (PCA), which was carried out with 1,206 teachers, yielded a minimum principal component analysis value of 0.544, which means valid for construct analysis.Cronbach's alpha value in the current study was at the level of reliability of 0.821, which means reliable.
Purposive sampling was used to select participants in the current study.Borg and Gall (1989) explain that purposive sampling allows the researcher to select cases that will provide rich information related to the purpose of the study.This method was selected so that the current study could provide meaningful data about teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.A total of 1477 teachers, including kindergarten, elementary, junior and senior high school teachers in East Java, Indonesia, were the participants of this study.This section describes the investigation of Indonesian teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.A survey was conducted by distributing the instrument to teachers.As mentioned above, the instrument was adapted from previous studies and was pilot-tested to ensure its validity and reliability.Moreover, descriptive and inferential analyses were applied to analyze the survey data.Means and standard deviations were obtained to understand frequencies.Furthermore, analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to discover the influence of components of the teachers' demographic information (i.e., gender, level of school, level of education, teaching experience, and training programs in inclusive education).For the demographic information that has more than two means, such as level of school (kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school), Tukey's post hoc analyses were applied.Post hoc procedures were utilized to obtain information about which sub-groups differ significantly from each other.95% confidence intervals were calculated and interpreted to prevent the overemphasis of significance testing, as recommended by Field (2013).An ANOVA was used to determine a statistical approach that could include multiple continuous dependent variables and a categorical independent variable.This way, the procedure could be used to estimate group differences without assuming that the values are in a specific order.Such a procedure could also estimate the effects of all dependent variables separately and together.Hence, ANOVAs were calculated, with the teachers' attitudes specified as dependent variables and their demographic characteristics as independent variables.Further analyses uncovered the parts of the data for which statistically significant differences could be found.

Demographic information
The ITAIE scale was distributed to 1477 teachers from the province of East Java to measure their attitudes toward inclusive education.The majority of these teachers (72.4%, n = 1477) were female, and 27.6% (n = 408) were male.The age of teachers ranged from 21 to 59 years (M = 2.01, SD = 0,026).The most common age of teachers was under 31 years (39.3%, n = 580).The largest group of teachers in terms of the school level worked at junior high schools (27.2%, n = 402), followed by senior high schools (26.7%, n = 395), elementary school (24.2%, n = 257) and

Teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education in east Java
The results for the 1477 teachers who participated in this study were tabulated one by one using the scoring sheet of each teacher's attitudes toward inclusive education (Table 3).The results revealed that 61.1% of teachers had positive attitudes and 38.9% had negative attitudes toward inclusive education.The analysis results showed that the attitudes of East Java teachers are more positive toward inclusive education.In the participants gender terms, the mean score of male teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education was 69.54 (SD = 9.788), and that of female teachers was 69.12 (SD = 8.951).However, the analysis of gender showed that this difference was not significant (F.(1,1476) = 0.618, p > 0.05) (Table 4).
In terms of school level, the mean score of teachers who taught in kindergarten schools was 72.01 (SD = 9.478), the mean score of teachers who taught in elementary schools was 68.32 (SD = 9.051), the mean score of teachers who taught in junior high schools was 68.85 (SD = 8.492), and the mean score of teachers who taught in senior high schools was 68.19 (SD = 9.334) (Table 2).The analysis showed a significant difference (F (3,1474) = 4.990, p < 0.05).A multiple comparative analysis (i.e., Tukey's test) showed that teachers who teach at kindergarten schools had attitudes that are significantly different when compared to teachers at elementary (ΔM = 3.693, p < 0.05), junior high schools (ΔM = 3.158, p < 0.05) and senior high schools (ΔM = 3.822, p < 0.05).These results indicate that teachers who teach in kindergarten have a more positive attitude toward inclusive education compared to elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school teachers.
In terms of teachers' education levels, the mean score for teachers who hold a bachelor's degree was 69.12 (SD = 9.175), while the score for teachers who hold a master's degree was 70.52 (SD = 9.336).The analysis showed no significant difference between these two groups (F (1,1476) = 1.313, p > 0.05).In terms of the teaching experiences of teachers, the mean score for teachers who had been teaching for under 5 years was 68.37 (SD = 8.867), the score for those with 6-10 years of experience was 70.06 (SD = 9.526), the score for those with 11-15 years of experience was 71.35 (SD = 9.841), and the score for those with more than 15 years of experience was 71.53 (SD = 9.841).The analysis revealed significant differences among the groups (F (3,1474) = 7.514, p > 0.05).A multiple comparative analysis (i.e., Tukey's test) showed that the longer the teacher teaches, the more positive his attitude toward inclusive education.According to terms of training programs, the mean score of teachers who had received training was 73.43 (SD = 10.697),whereas the mean score of teachers with no experience was 68.60 (SD = 8.770) (Table 2).The analysis revealed a significant difference in the mean scores of the two groups (F (1,1476) = 47.981,p < 0.05).Specifically, teachers who had experience in an inclusive education training program had more positive attitudes toward inclusive education than teachers who didn't have such experience.

Discussions
The Inclusive Education System has been in place in Indonesia for the past 20 years.It has appeared in both the research and policy sectors.The implementation of Inclusive Education entails allowing students with special educational needs to study in the same classroom as other students.However, great effort is required to ensure the success of Inclusive Education.Teachers must develop an appropriate attitude toward inclusivity to create a productive learning environment that accommodates all students so that they can interact and learn together.In creating inclusive practices in general education classrooms, some studies have shown that teachers' attitudes are vital for inclusive education's success (Al Dababneh & Al-Zboon, 2022;Wu & Lin, 2021).Inclusive education can create an environment that brings typical and SEN students together.In order to implement inclusive education, schools must make changes to their curriculum, educational infrastructure, and learning systems to meet the individual needs of their students.In order to develop an appropriate and objective educational program, an accurate identification and assessment process must be carried out by trained personnel and or professionals in their fields (Herawati, 2016).But, there are only a few studies that have investigated the identification and assessment process especially Indonesian teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education, also not all teachers had training program for inclusive education, so not all teachers have the competence and the knowledge to teach students with SEN.These problems could be cause by the lack of evaluation program of inclusive Note: N = sample size, M = mean, SD = standard deviation education that lead to the problems.Therefore we need to start evaluating these problems that can be using ITAIE scale to measure the teacher attitude towards inclusive education, so in the future, we can develop methods to improve the inclusive education in Indonesia.
The results of the current study showed that Indonesian teachers' attitudes toward inclusive were generally positive.According to the ITAIE Scale results, teachers more often scored within the positive range than the negative range.However, teachers more often scored within the neutral range than the positive range., Asri et al. (2021), Mahdum et al. (2019), Muzdalifah andBillah (2017), Fitrianasari (2015), and Huroiyati and Paramitha (2015) have suggested that teachers generally have positive attitudes toward inclusive education.On the other hand, AlMahdi and Bukamal (2019), Saloviita (2020) suggested that teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education might be grouped into positive and negative categories.In general, therefore, these studies suggested that teachers have a more positive attitude toward inclusive education than preservice teachers.However, further investigations are needed to confirm this result.
In other countries, teachers have expressed positive attitudes toward inclusive education (Van Steen and Wilson (2020); Krischler et al. (2019); AlMahdi and Bukamal (2019); Greene (2017); Saloviita and Schaffus (2016); Alharti and Evans (2017).Nonetheless, before 2011, a review of 26 international journal articles revealed that most teachers had either neutral or negative attitudes (De Boer et al., 2011).The results of the current study were not surprising, as inclusive education has been a commitment of the Indonesian government since the Declaration of Bandung was introduced in 2004.

Attitudes based on gender
In the current study, gender did not play a significant role in teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.Similar findings have been identified in recent studies (Alharti & Evans, 2017;Dorji et al., 2021;Islahi & Nasrin, 2019;Savolainen et al., 2022).However, the findings of the current study also contradict evidence from previous studies.In a variety of studies, males were found to have more positive attitudes than females (De la Rama et al., 2020;Tuccillo et al., 2020).Other studies, however, found that female teachers tend to have more positive attitudes than males do (AlMahdi & Bukamal, 2019;Filippello et al., 2020;Hatabu et al., 2020).
A closer look at most recent studies reveals that gender differences are relatively weak.Study by Islahi & Nasrin (2022) showed that there are no specific differences based on gender of teacher towardz attitude in India.Then, a study from Finland showed that both male and female teachers, the impact of teachers' self-efficacy on their attitudes toward inclusive education remained steady (Savolainen et al., 2022).Taken together, the evidence presented in recent studies does not suggest that gender affects teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.

Attitudes based on school level
The study indicated that, in general, kindergarten school teachers have more positive attitudes toward inclusive education than teachers from other from school level (elementary, junior high, and senior high school).In Indonesia, there are no studies that support this result.Study by Leahy (2014) conducted in New York revealed that kindergarten school teachers generally have a positive attitude toward inclusion than high school teachers.Also, other studies have revealed the same thing (Kurniawati et al., 2012;Maulia & Kurniawati, 2018).In addition, other studies found that teachers who felt secure in their networks of support and who had adequate access to instructional tools, such as a teaching assistant in the classroom, were more welcoming of inclusion than other teachers (Saloviita, 2020).Then study by Tuncay and Kizilaslan (2022) explained that candidates for early childhood education teachers exhibited more inclusive views.
On the other hand, a study by Emam and Mohamed (2011) found that there were no differences between the attitudes of teachers from preschool and elementary school, although elementary school teachers showed a higher sense of self-efficacy regarding the management and teaching of students with disabilities.Moreover, Unianu (2012) suggested that teachers with more experience in elementary school are more convinced that they can adapt to educational activities to consider all children's needs.Therefore, the attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education might vary in different areas and are influenced by many components.

Attitudes based on education level
In the current study, Indonesian teachers' level of education did not have a significant effect on their attitudes toward inclusive education.This study revealed that teachers who hold a master's degree have the same attitudes toward inclusive education as teachers who hold only a bachelor's degree.Previously, Jiménez-Hernández et al. (2020), Salayo et al. (2020), andBansal (2016) found that there was no significant difference in the attitudes of teachers when they were grouped according to their degree.However, regarding beliefs about the efficacy of inclusive education and perceptions of professional roles and functions, teachers with a master's degree hold a more positive attitude than teachers with only a bachelor's degree.This result is similar to the findings of Wahono and Chang (2019) and Ediyanto et al. (2021) who found that teachers who held either a doctoral or master's degree showed a more positive attitude toward inclusion than those with bachelor's degrees.The suggested reason for this is that teachers with higher levels of education have acquired more comprehensive insights and more knowledge than those with lower levels of education.
In contrast with the results of Forlin et al. (2007), Ahmmed et al. (2012) reported teachers with a lower qualification had more positive attitudes than those with a higher degree.Although it would be reasonable to assume that highly educated teachers would be aware of the positive effects of inclusive education, this finding needs to be interpreted with caution, mainly because the empirical evidence presented by Ahmmed et al. (2012) pointed in a different direction.

Attitudes based on teaching experiences
In the current study, the attitudes of Indonesian teachers toward inclusive education differ significantly based on their teaching experience.The longer the teacher teaches in inclusive schools, the more positive is his attitude toward inclusive education.This finding corroborates the result of the research conducted by Diery et al. (2020) study found that teachers with more experience had more positive attitudes than teachers with less experience.Krischler et al. (2019) indicated that teachers with prior teaching experience showed significantly more positive attitudes than those without this experience.Moreover, based on Savolainen et al. (2022) work, Teachers with greater experience understand inclusion better and are more supportive of it.A significant interaction effect of SEN helped to form positive attitudes toward inclusive education.This finding conversely with the result of the research conducted by Moberg et al. (2020), which showed that there was no significant difference in the attitudes of teachers when they were grouped according to their teaching experiences.The finding showed that teachers' experience was negatively correlated with their attitudes toward inclusion.In another case, teachers who have less teaching experience showed a more positive attitude toward inclusive education than teachers with more experience (Avramidis et al., 2019).Teachers with less work experience have more positive attitudes toward inclusion than teachers with more work experience (Barnes & Gaines, 2015).

Attitudes based on training program participation
The results of this study indicated that teachers who had participated in inclusive education training programs had a more positive attitude than teachers who had not participated in training programs.A more positive attitude in teachers who had participated in inclusive education training programs was also seen in all the ITAIE Scale components.This result of the current study is supported by several studies (Avramidis et al., 2019;Saloviita, 2020) that have reported that training in inclusive education has a positive impact on teachers' attitudes.In addition, such positive attitudes supported the potential for more successful inclusive programs or experiences for students (Krischler et al., 2019;Samsudin et al., 2021).The results of this study indicate that the training program is very influential on the teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.
In contrast, Dapudong (2014) found no significant difference in attendance to any special education training program or workshop.Dapudong (2013) pointed out that the attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education revealed their abilities to meet the individual needs of students with SEN.Wilkins and Nietfeld (2004) showed many differences between a group of teachers who participated in an experimental group and the control group.The results indicated that the intervention did not influence the attitudes of teachers toward inclusive education.

Conclusions
The ITAIE Scale was used to measure the attitudes of 1477 Indonesian teachers toward inclusive education.It was found that 61.1% of teachers have a positive attitude toward inclusive education and 38.9% have a negative attitude.Thus, Indonesian teachers tend to have positive attitudes toward inclusive education rather than negative ones.Comparisons of teachers' demographic data, level of school, teaching experience, and experience in training programs in inclusive education showed some significant differences.Teachers who teach in kindergarten schools have a more positive attitude toward inclusive education than teachers who teach in elementary and secondary schools.Furthermore, the longer the teacher teaches in inclusive schools, the more positive is his attitude toward inclusive education.In addition, teachers who have participated in inclusive education training programs also have a more positive attitude toward inclusive education than other teachers.Meanwhile, gender, and education level did not appear to influence teachers' attitudes.Finally, based on the results of this study, the factors that influence the attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education are the level of the school where the teacher works, the length of teaching experience in inclusive schools, and the participation of teachers in inclusive education training programs.As suggestion, we recommend the result of the study can be one of the considerations to develop a policy such as rules, laws, guide decisions, procedure, or protocols that made by government or institution about the training for inclusive education teachers in order to improve teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.The attitude that need to be improve consist of three dimension, they are cognitive, affective, and behavioral, such as the way the teachers can create an accepting environment for all students, how to solving the problem of students with SEN in the inclusive classroom, responsibilities, knowledge, implication, and perspective in inclusive education in Indonesia.