<![CDATA[Inclusive education serves as an essential pillar in ensuring equitable access to learning for all students, including those with special needs. The success of its implementation is strongly influenced by teachers’ psychological readiness, particularly their empathy and self-efficacy in managing student diversity. This study aims to examine the effect of empathy on teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education and to evaluate the role of teacher self-efficacy as a mediator. A non-experimental quantitative design was employed, involving 91 in-service teachers from both inclusive schools and regular schools that admit students with special needs. The instruments used were the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practice (TEIP), and the Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES). Data were analyzed using MedMod in JAMOVI with 5000 bootstrap resamples. The findings indicate that empathy does not significantly influence self-efficacy (p = 0.071) nor directly affect teachers’ attitudes (p = 0.082), although the total effect of empathy on attitudes was significant (p = 0.010). Teacher self-efficacy significantly predicted attitudes toward inclusive education (p < .001), yet it did not function as a mediator between empathy and attitudes (p = 0.090). Additional results show that self-efficacy has a stronger predictive contribution to attitudes (R² = 0.320) compared to empathy (R² = 0.058), and teachers who had participated in inclusive training or certification demonstrated more positive self-efficacy and attitudes than those without such training. These findings emphasize the importance of strengthening teacher self-efficacy through formal training and institutional support to foster more positive attitudes toward inclusive education.]]>
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