Locus of control, pupil control ideology, occupational stress, and teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education
Abstract
The educational research literature suggests that teachers experiencing chronic occupational stress develop feelings of powerlessness, express cynical attitudes, and demonstrate resistance to change and innovation. Furthermore, the degree of stress experienced by teachers has been correlated with their locus of control and pupil control orientations. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the differential effects of the predictor variables of teachers' locus of control, pupil control ideology, and perceived occupational stress on the criterion variable of attitudes toward inclusive education.^ General education teachers (N = 117) from a suburban school district in New York volunteered to participate in the study. The teachers anonymously completed the following questionnaires: (a) Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale, (b) Pupil Control Ideology Form, (c) Teacher Locus of Control Scale, (d) Teacher Stress Inventory, and (e) demographic fact sheet.^ Inferential statistical analyses (i.e., t tests, analyses of variance, and Pearson product-moment correlations) were computed on the teacher characteristics and the variables under investigation. Differences were observed between teachers' age levels and perceived occupational stress, as well as between teachers' locus of control and grade level taught. Furthermore, considerable interrelatedness was found among all the research variables.^ Path analyses were conducted to estimate causation from the correlational data obtained from the total sample. Significant direct relationships were found between (a) pupil control ideology and occupational stress and (b) occupational stress and attitudes toward inclusive education. Alternative path models provided more parsimonious fits to the sample data, wherein pupil control ideology and locus of control accounted for most of the variance in attitudes toward inclusive education. These models suggested that teachers' control beliefs (i.e., locus of control and pupil control ideology), independent of occupational stress, significantly affected attitude formation. ^
Subject Area
Education, Educational Psychology|Psychology, Industrial|Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Recommended Citation
Agoglia, Jean Anne, "Locus of control, pupil control ideology, occupational stress, and teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education" (1997). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9824340.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9824340
