Educator Attitude and Servant Leadership: A Positive Combination for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between educator attitude towards students with disabilities and their selfperception of servant leadership characteristics related to teaching students with mild to moderate disabilities included in the general education classroom. Using the Attitude Towards Teaching All Students Scale (ATTAS-mm) combined with the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ), a sampling frame of 166 secondary educators who teach students with mild to moderate disabilities in the general education setting within one southeastern Virginia school division were surveyed. While a small positive correlation existed between servant leadership and educator attitude as evidenced by the Pearson r scores ranging from .250 to .282, multiple regression determined that three of the five servant leadership factors (i.e., emotional healing; B = .672, wisdom; B = .571, and organizational stewardship; B = .312) could reliably predict educator attitude, thus indicating that higher perceived levels of servant leadership combined with greater positive educator attitudes is a winning combination for students with mild to moderate disabilities.