‘Does the loss outweigh the gain?’: inclusive teachers’ belief systems about teaching students with intellectual disabilities in Chinese elementary classrooms

Little is known about inclusive teachers’ belief systems about teaching students with mild, moderate, or severe intellectual disabilities across different subjects (e.g. language arts, math, science, PE, art, and music) in less developed countries. To address this gap, this study aims to understand inclusive teachers’ belief systems about teaching students with intellectual disabilities in China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 elementary teachers who taught students with intellectual disabilities. The analysis yielded three categories of Chinese inclusive teachers’ beliefs, including beliefs about students with intellectual disabilities, beliefs about themselves, and beliefs about teaching practice, which varied from limiting orientation, representing the medical model, to constructive orientation, representing the social model. Furthermore, these beliefs interacted with each other and formed either nested belief systems, with three beliefs closely connected and coherent in orientation, or divergent belief systems, with three beliefs partially unconnected and conflicting in orientation. Findings highlight the need to move beyond focusing on a particular belief and pay attention to the structural features and orientation coherence within inclusive teachers’ belief systems.