Teachers play a decisive role in making inclusive education a reality. The particular case of inclusion in physical education (PE) poses a specific challenge to teaching practice. How PE teachers view inclusion may provide special insights into teachers' general attitudes toward inclusion and inclusive practices in the general school curriculum.…

Professional learning for teachers is important if they are to be prepared for teaching in inclusive classrooms. This is particularly pertinent in Hong Kong where teachers have little personal experience of inclusion and where teaching continues to be didactic and examination oriented. Since Hong Kong implemented a whole school approach to…

This paper, one of a series, reports the results of a survey of 413 children in Grades Three to Six on inclusive education in a school district in rural Alberta, Canada. The aims of the study were to examine the views of children regarding their experience in schools claiming to be inclusive, situated within a jurisdiction which also claims to be…

This paper uses Ireland--one of Europe's most rapidly changing societies--as a case study and examines progress towards an inclusive education system. It explores policy and progress on developing an inclusive system under a number of key headings: social class, ethnicity, gender and disability. On the basis of analysis of official statistics and…

Although the development of policy towards inclusive education in the UK is well advanced, very little is known about the social outcomes of existing inclusive arrangements in primary settings. A recent study sought to fill this gap by systematically investigating the social impacts of inclusion on children accredited with Special Educational…

The issue of where to teach children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities has been a great concern as countries respond to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Salamanca Statement on inclusion of 1994. In this study, the responses of 500 trained and untrained mainstream primary school…

Attitudes about inclusion are extremely complex and vary from teacher to teacher and school to school. This article explores the attitudes of teachers about inclusion of children with special needs in their secondary schools in general education. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design, with 60 teachers as participants from…

The preparation of teachers for regular schools has clearly needed to undergo quite significant change in recent years. One major adjustment has been the necessity to prepare teachers for progressively more diverse student populations as they will increasingly be required to teach in inclusive classrooms. Many teacher education institutions are,…

Successful inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN) in school settings depends largely on the attitudes of parents of peers without SEN. The purpose of the present study was to explore the attitudes of Greek parents of primary school children without SEN towards inclusion. The participants were 338 parents (182 fathers, 156…

Background: Schools in New Zealand do not normally include students with intellectual disability in their sports programmes. This study examined regular students' attitudes towards the possible inclusion of students with an intellectual disability in an integrated sports programme within their school. Materials and Methods: A total of 170 school…

The government's policy of inclusive education has received widespread support from educationalists and parents alike. The government argues that barriers to inclusion can be broken down with continuing professional development courses for teachers and by more effective multi-agency partnerships. It seems not to have considered how children's own…

As part of research undertaken by the first author, a survey of schools was carried out in one local education authority (LEA) in order to gather information about pupils diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). All mainstream and special schools and pupil referral units were approached and a response rate of 94% was…

(Purpose) The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of children in the general education classroom of their classmates with developmental and other disabilities. Gender and grade level were evaluated, but more importantly, levels of integration and relationships with people with disabilities were analyzed. (Methodology) Two hundred…

This report presents the Council of the Great City Schools' findings and recommendations for improving the general education intervention and special education services of the Boston Public Schools. The report places special emphasis how the instructional program serves students with disabilities districtwide. The process that the Council used to…

This book provides an internationally comparable set of indicators on educational provision for students with disabilities, learning difficulties and disadvantages (DDD). It highlights the number of students involved, where they are educated--special schools, special classes or regular classes--and in what phases of education--pre-primary,…