Attitudes of physical education teachers in inclusive schools towards teaching autistic students: a phenomenological study

With the increasing presence of autistic students in inclusive schools, understanding the attitudes of physical education (PE) teachers towards teaching these students has become important. The current study aimed to examine the attitudes of PE teachers in inclusive schools towards teaching autistic students using the theory of planned behavior. The participants of this phenomenological-qualitative study were 16 PE teachers who participated in one-on-one semi-structured telephone interviews. The interviews were transcribed for analysis and later analyzed using thematic line-by-line analysis. The findings revealed that the majority of PE teachers in inclusive schools had negative attitudes towards teaching autistic students. Barriers and challenges during teaching autistic students were more dominant for PE teachers than facilitators. The results highlighted the importance of addressing the barriers and challenges that limit the quality of PE teachers’ teaching experiences with autistic students as a way to improve PE teachers’ attitudes and indicated the need to establish an adapted PE teacher definition, especially in countries such as Türkiye.