This article reports on a small-scale research study utilising semi-structured interviews to discover and understand trainee teachers perceptions of inclusion in the Primary School. As future educators it is vital that trainee teachers understand, critique, and develop their thinking and around the concept of inclusion to ensure they continue, and…

This article, co-authored with a group of undergraduate secondary music student teachers, shares their experiences as they learned about additional support needs and inclusive practice through a series of 10 problem-based learning (PBL) sessions. Drawing from their reflections on the weekly sessions, the paper explores the students' learning…

This study explored the schooling experiences of secondary-aged pupils with and without SEND attending three mainstream schools in England. Thirty-seven young adolescents with SEND and eight without agreed to be interviewed. Thematic analysis revealed the challenges these young adolescents with SEND encountered to feel included in their schools…

This study compared two samples of pre-service teachers from Saudi Arabia (n = 306) and Finland (n = 186) regarding their attitudes towards inclusive education. The Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (TAIS) was used to measure the participants' attitudes. The results were analysed using five different statistical analysis.…

This article arises from an EdD thesis (Horsburgh, 2018) that sought to describe research undertaken to address a perceived gap in the literature by carrying out a detailed examination of the classroom learning of seven primary school aged, care-experienced children. An aspect of the study was that it provided opportunities for younger care…

The attitudes towards inclusion and the terms used related to special needs by pre-service teachers in three Finnish universities were studied. Inclusion is the main educational policy in Finland, and special solutions are avoided when possible. With a questionnaire and a brief survey, data from 488 pre-service teachers (PSTs) were collected and…

Through a qualitative rights informed study, using semi-structured interviews and a range of participatory approaches, seven autistic teenage boys in Northern Ireland discuss their educational experiences in mainstream school and within an Alternative Education Provision (AEP). Their experiences and advice demonstrate that the relational aspects…

Teachers' beliefs are crucial to the success of inclusion programmes and reform efforts for children with special educational needs (SEN). Based on this evidence, one hundred and thirty-nine primary pre-service teachers from one training institution in the Netherlands completed an adapted version of a measure of beliefs towards inclusive…

The number of teaching assistants (TAs) in schools in the UK has risen in recent years, but there remains a lack of clarity about the roles being undertaken by these support staff. This article reports findings from a study investigating how the TA role is understood both by the pupils being supported and by TAs themselves. Eleven students with…

The experiences of seven Australian senior secondary school students with vision impairment attending mainstream schools in Victoria were explored to gain an understanding of the support mechanisms operating to allow them access to an inclusive education. This qualitative study primarily used the in-depth interviews of students, augmented by brief…

In this paper we examine different aspects of the inclusion debate, including how it has been shaped by the political context in England over the past 30 years. We then give consideration to the key argument that has dominated the inclusion agenda over the last decade: should effective inclusion be considered only as placement in mainstream school…

In this article the author reports on the experiences of 20 children who attended a reading class/reading school for a placement period before returning to mainstream. While the original much larger doctoral study encompassed parents' and teachers' perspectives, this article is confined to the views of children. Their prevailing positive…

Emerging teachers undergoing initial teacher education programmes and given the opportunity to engage in a teaching placement in special provisions settings consistently report that they find the experience "transformative." Over eight years, informal and often unprompted data emerged which "insisted" upon reporting and suggested that the special…