Special education policy and practice are ever evolving to best meet the needs of all students in an inclusive environment. Since the implementation the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) thirty years ago, students with special needs have moved from restrictive, exclusionary placements to being educated alongside their same aged…

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Education for All (EFA) goals, which have set the agenda for global development since 2000, will reach their deadline in 2015. The Education for All agenda crafted in Jomtien in 1990 and reiterated in Dakar in 2000 was meant to ensure that governments and their partners address the basic learning…

Background: Civil and political participation lies at the core of citizenship. Increasingly, people with intellectual disability are members of disability advisory bodies. This study investigated the political orientations of advisory body members with intellectual disability, their participatory experiences, and the types of support they…

Dialogic feminism has emphasized the need to include all women, particularly those who have traditionally been most excluded, into participation and decision making in different areas of society. The critical communicative methodology (CCM) has responded to this need by including the voices of the Other Women into research processes and dialogue…

In contributing to this special issue of IJIE on inclusive communities, this paper explores the subjective heart and psychical workings of communities, which are firmly embedded in family, community and society. As countries all around the world are gripped by the rolling out of a psychology of the Global North--"Empire"--questions are…

"Proceedings of International Conference on Research in Education and Science" includes full papers presented at the International Conference on Research in Education and Science (ICRES) which took place on April 27-30, 2024, in Antalya, Turkey. The aim of the conference is to offer opportunities to share ideas, discuss theoretical and…

Background: Inclusive STEM (traditionally known to stand for "Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math") high schools are emerging across the country as a mechanism for improving STEM education and getting more and diverse students into STEM majors and careers. However, there is no consensus on what these schools are or should be,…

Innovations in pedagogy are, at their core, aimed at improving the educational experiences and outcomes of learners. Being as many countries are embracing a philosophy of inclusive education, designers of educational reform must be mindful of the effects of any proposed innovations on the experiences and outcomes of a broad range of diverse…

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience peer conflict and social challenges, which likely relate to compounded characteristics of both the child with ASD and his or her peers. However, few studies have experimentally investigated these associations to inform prevention and intervention efforts. The present study used social…

Reliance on teacher assistants (TAs) in mainstream schools to support students with disability and learning difficulties is an increasing trend in Australia. In 2011, over 80,000 TAs were employed costing approximately $3billion per annum [DEEWR. 2012. Job Outlook. Accessed June 2013. http://joboutlook.gov.au/default.aspx]. This paper reports on…

The deinstitutionalization movement that began 50 years ago remains a current issue for professionals and families. Using qualitative phenomenology methodology, we investigated the experience of mandated deinstitutionalization for parents and siblings whose relatives with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) transitioned from…

Over the years, a variety of political, social, and other contextual factors have contributed to the expansion of roles for PK-12 special educators, leading to a complex set of challenges and opportunities that must be addressed as the field of special education looks to the future. Today's special educators need to collaborate with general…

Sweden uses municipally run pupil referral units (PRUs) for students displaying emotional behavioural difficulties (EBD). This study investigates one Swedish municipality where transfers of students to PRUs were related to school practices favouring either inclusion or exclusion. A purposeful sampling procedure was used to select three elementary…

Access to public education that provides equal opportunities for all is a democratic right for every person living in Sweden. In addition, every child should as far as possible be included in the mainstream school. An official story that is taken for granted in Sweden is that an extremely low proportion of children are in need of special support,…

Current U.S. legislation calls for students with disabilities to be involved and make progress in general education curriculum. Despite the legislation, students with extensive support needs continue to be segregated from their peers and post-school outcomes remain dismal for this population of students. The purpose of this retrospective study was…