Dealing with inclusion–teachers’ assessment of internal and external resources

Inclusive education has changed the school environment and created new inclusion-related activities for teachers. Dealing with these inclusion-related activities is demanding and can affect teachers’ health and wellbeing. Therefore, teachers need both internal and external resources to cope with the activities. However, little is known to what extent teachers are equipped with these resources and whether their assessments of these resources are related to their inclusion-specific expertise and exposure. Data from the 2016 study ‘More Time for good Schools’ are used; the sample includes n=6712 teachers. The study provides a first approximation of teachers’ assessments of their internal and external resources (‘sense of coherence’ and ‘social support’) related to inclusion-specific activities in the areas of ‘cooperation’, ‘diagnostics’ and ‘individual support’. Latent group comparisons show that special needs school teachers and teachers with less exposure to inclusion-related activities assess their resources significantly more positive than general education teachers or teachers with more exposure, respectively.