Education for all in action: Measuring teachers’ competences for inclusive education

responsibility of education to create education for all. The beliefs on student diversity consist of several dimensions, specifically teachers’ professional beliefs about students with an ethnic minority background, with a disability, from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and essen- tialist notions on the gender binary and sexuality. While these dimensions match with typically delineated categories of at-risk students, this was not entirely the case for gender and sexual orientation. Interestingly, even though items on both LGBT students and gender norms were included, analyses show that both pre- and in-service teachers tend to think of these as one overarching construct. This is in line with the theoretical concept of heteronormativity, which highlights the way in which normative ideas on gender expression and sexuality are interwo- ven [58]. Hence, the validation of the DISCO-instrument lends further support to the con- struct of heteronormativity, not just from a theoretical perspective but within the minds of teachers as well. The responsibility-items tap the extent to which teachers believe it is the responsibility of the educational field to create maximal developmental opportunities for diverse students. This includes several dimensions, including one about general school policy, which encompasses both general items (e.g., “It is every teacher’s job to contribute to a school policy that is mindful of diversity”) as well as items referring to SES- and gender-issues (e.g., “Students from families

with financial problems should be provided with appropriate support (e.g. payment plan, spe- cial support fund)”, “As a school, it is important to break the traditional divide between sub- jects that are stereotypically for boys or for girls.”). Other dimensions encompass items on school policy directed towards specific diversity-groups, with one dimension specifically geared towards students with a migration background, and another geared towards students with a disability. This factorial structure suggests some interesting things about the way teach- ers think about school policy and the educational field’s responsibility on EfA. For instance, issues regarding SES and gender are apparently being regarded as “commonplace enough” to be integrated within general school policy. Conversely, the needs of ethnic minority students and those with a disability are seen as being “too different” and warrant their own specific poli- cies and guidelines. Previous research has shown that Flemish teachers tend to have a lot of questions on how to handle students’ multilingualism and religiosity [47]. Furthermore, Flan- ders historically has a high rate of students segregated into special education when compared to other European nations [59], and has only recently made substantial steps in integrating stu- dents with a disability in mainstream education [47]. Hence, it stands to reason that this is con- tributing to teachers seeing policies for both ethnic minority students and those with a disability as being “special”. It would be interesting for future research to explore to what

extent teachers in other contexts share a similar view. Hence, we call for a cross-national vali- dation of the DISCO-instrument. When taking a closer look at how teachers score on belief-scales, some interesting find- ings emerge. First, teachers tend to score highest on the responsibility of schools to contrib- ute to general school policies for diversity, and have progressive beliefs about students’ gender expression and sexuality. The positive stance of Flemish teachers with regard to gen- der norms and LGBT-rights is in line with previous research [47], and matches the overall progressive stance of Belgium when it comes to LGBT-rights [60]. On the other side of the spectrum, Flemish teachers tend to think least positively about school policies specifically geared toward ethnic minority students and those with a disability, as well as having less positive beliefs about low-SES students. Noteworthy is how teachers combine positive views on general school policies (which include items on providing for low-SES students) with less approving personal beliefs on SES-students. Perhaps this shows that teachers are in sup- port of the uplifting role that education could play and in which strong, general policies have a substantial role, while at the same time acknowledging the day-to-day challenges PLOS ONE Measuring teachers’ competences for inclusive education PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291033 November 8, 2023 17 / 22