Abstract:

This study discusses the attitudes of teachers towards inclusion and their empathy when including children with special needs in early childhood education settings in Indonesia. The research utilized the Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Educational Scale (MATIES), which consists of three sub-dimensions: cognitive, affective, and behavioral, as well as the Empathy Quotient (EQ) to measure empathy levels. The main objective of this paper is to explore the relationship between empathy and attitude among teachers in early childhood education. Additionally, the study examined specific variables such as education level, inclusion training, and teaching experience, in relation to teachers' attitudes toward including children with disabilities in regular classrooms. A voluntary survey was administered to 161 Indonesian teachers. The results revealed a significant correlation between empathy levels and the three dimensions of teacher attitude towards inclusive education, encompassing cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects among early childhood teachers in Indonesia.