Higher Education Teachers’ Training in Attention to SEN Students: Testing a Mediation Model

Abstract

There is growing interest in analyzing the evolution of inclusive education in universities, highlighting the training of teachers as the main barrier to this evolution. The purpose of this study was to analyze, through a mediation model, to what extent the accessibility and inclusion of university campuses affect, both directly and indirectly, the continuous training of teachers in attention to diversity and training demands by teachers in this same area. Participants were 580 teachers from the Faculty of Education of eight Andalusian universities (Spain). The results revealed that the continuous training of teachers in attention to diversity mediates the negative effect that accessibility and inclusion of university campuses have on the training demanded by teachers; this means that the more accessible and inclusive the universities are, the more continuous training teachers have and therefore the more interest they have in continuing training. There is no empirical evidence in the literature that this mediation model is used in the field of educational inclusion as a methodological technique, so it is a very innovative contribution.