| Abstract
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The present study was designed to find out how classroom teachers and school administrators interpret the probable effects of mainstreaming on Nigerian primary school pupils. A 40-item questionnaire was used to find out the perceptions, of classroom teachers and school administrators on the four dependent variables of the study: (1) desirability of mainstreaming; (2) pupils' achievement levels in mainstreaming; (3) pupils' levels of social acceptance and self-concept as a result of mainstreaming; and, (4) perception of need for teacher preparation for a successful mainstreaming. In the validity study, 90 primary school teachers and 90 primary school administrators participated. They were randomly assigned to three treatments groups of high, moderate, and minimal degree of training vis-a-vis the education of the handicapped. The results of a two-way ANOVA with replications showed that the teacher preparation moderator independent variable, and the teacher preparation x teacher status interaction reached significance. In the validity study, all the three linear orthogonal contrast tests carried out between the mean scores of 80.920, 72.100, and 69.370 for the high, moderate, and minimal teacher training procedures were statistically significant. The conclusion reached from the above analysis is that, since the questionnaire has succeeded in showing significant differences in the mean scores of teachers and administrators given high, moderate and minimal teacher preparation training, it is arguable that the instrument has construct validity and can measure teacher and administration perceptions towards mainstreaming. With regard to the main study, a random sample of 160 primary classroom teachers and 160 primary school administrators participated. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to identify the differences among the four mean scores of the dependent variables of: (1) desirability for mainstreaming; (2) academic effects of mainstreaming; (3) social effects of mainstreaming; and (4) need for teacher preparation for mainstreaming. The result of data analysis indicated a significant F ratio, F = 6.712 (4,155) df, p < 0.0001. The four null hypotheses tested in this study were therefore rejected beyond the 0.0001 level of significance. Four one-way ANOVAs were carried out through the process of MANOVA and they yielded significant differences among the perception scores of primary school teachers and their administrator counterparts on all four measures. Thus the four null hypotheses tested were rejected beyond the 0.001 level of significance. It can then be concluded that the primary school teachers who participated in this behavioral research were more positively disposed to mainstreaming than their school administrator counterparts.
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