Von wissenden Zweifelnden und unwissenden Überzeugten. Eine latente Klassenanalyse anhand des inklusionsbezogenen pädagogischen Wissens und der inklusionsbezogenen Überzeugungen angehender Grundschullehrkräfte

The specific competencies teachers need in the context of inclusive education are currently being discussed. Inclusion-related pedagogical knowledge and corresponding positive inclusion-related beliefs are considered important. While numerous findings exist on the inclusion-related beliefs of prospective primary school teachers, inclusion-related knowledge remains largely unexplored. To adequately prepare prospective primary school teachers for their roles in inclusive classrooms, it is essential to establish empirically grounded insights into the person-centered characteristics and factors underpinning inclusion-related professional competencies within primary teacher education programs. The present study contributes to addressing this research gap. Using a cross-sectional design, N = 716 prospective primary school teachers from bavarian universities were surveyed on their inclusion-related pedagogical knowledge and inclusion-related beliefs. Overall, the inclusion-related competencies of the primary school teacher training students surveyed were in the positive range. However, latent class analyses identified four classes that differed significantly in their inclusion-related competencies and can be described as knowledgeable convinced, knowledgeable sceptical, unknowing convinced and unknowing doubting. Class differences in the development of inclusion-related competence facets appear to primarily depend on the progression of studies and attendance of inclusion-related courses. Implications for the design of adaptive courses and the structure of the degree programme are discussed.