The Opposition to Inclusive Education: Authoritarianism and Social Darwinism and Their Impact on Exclusive Attitudes in Education

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between authoritarianism, Social Darwinism, and exclusivist attitudes towards individuals with disabilities in the context of inclusive education. Using the method of structural equation modelling, we test whether authoritarianism as well as Social Darwinism pose a barrier to inclusive education (understood as segregated placement, transmissive learning and teaching beliefs, and a medical model of disability). The sample consists of N= 215 student teachers and psychology students from a south-western German university. The hypothesis that Social Darwinism plays a mediating role between authoritarian attitudes and exclusivist attitudes towards inclusion was tested for the first time. Findings confirm the assumed predictive relationship between right-wing authoritarianism and opposition to inclusive education. While right-wing authoritarianism and Social Darwinism are indeed significantly related, we do not observe, however, a significant relationship between Social Darwinism and exclusionary attitudes—a finding we discuss particularly in light of our sample. The results indicate that the opposition to inclusive education is based on a coherent attitude that is in compliance with authoritarianism. Practical implications are discussed.

Received: 18 October 2024 | Revised: 20 January 2025 | Accepted: 3 March 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support this work are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Author Contribution Statement

Tom Jannick Selisko: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration. Marius Dilling: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration.