Cronin, John
(2022)
A study exploring the relationship of secondary school teacher attitudes and efficacy beliefs to inclusive behaviours towards young people with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs.
DAppEdPsy thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
The inclusion of Children and Young People (CYP) with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) difficulties has proven to be an ongoing challenge for teachers and schools in the UK; teachers view CYP with SEMH-type needs as the most challenging area of Special Educational Need (SEN) to include in mainstream classes (De Boer et al., 2011; DfE, 2019b; Dimitrelllou, 2017) and schools disproportionately exclude CYP with SEMH-type needs compared to other areas of SEN or no SEN at all (Bryant et al., 2018; DfE, 2019b; Graham et al., 2019; Monsen et al., 2014). Despite the government’s commitment to supporting the prevention and effective management of young people’s mental health needs (DoH and DfE, 2017; DfE, 2018; DfE, 2019a), SEMH difficulties are highly prevalent and are expected to increase as a result of the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic (Lee, 2020), placing even greater focus on schools to promote the successful inclusion of students with these needs.
Research has consistently highlighted the importance of teacher attitudes and teacher self-efficacy (TSE) in influencing inclusive practices towards CYP with SEN (Amaral et al., 2013; Borg et al., 2011; MacFarlane & Woolfson, 2013; Malak et al., 2018; Pit-ten Cate et al., 2019; Sharma & Sokal, 2016). However, a systematic literature review conducted for this study highlighted that there is currently a lack of research into understanding the relationship between secondary teacher attitudes and efficacy and their behavioural intentions towards the inclusion of CYP, in particular those with SEMH-type needs. Additionally, whilst there is significant evidence into the role of TSE towards inclusive teacher behaviours, there is currently a lack of research into the role of teacher collective efficacy (CTE) in determining inclusive practices.
This study adopted the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) to investigate the relationship between teacher attitudes (both beliefs and feelings), TSE (perceived behavioural control), CTE (subjective norm) and behavioural intentions towards the inclusion of CYP with SEMH needs. Adopting a cross-sectional survey design, secondary school teachers (n=101) from mainstream schools participated in an online questionnaire.
The results of the study found that strength of secondary teacher self-efficacy was significantly higher for teachers with over fifteen years of experience compared to those with less than five years of experience. Only teacher attitudes (both beliefs and feelings) were individually found to be a predictor of behavioural intentions towards the inclusion of CYP with SEMH needs.
The implications of the findings for both research and professional practice are explored including; how headteachers can strengthen teacher attitudes towards inclusion to enable inclusive practices and how educational psychologists may support a deeper understanding of SEMH through specialist training and groupbased problem-solving supervision.
Actions (Archive Staff Only)
 |
Edit View |
Tools
Tools
