This article argues that the progressive education policies introduced into New Zealand special education (SE) services during the late 1980s were sabotaged by neoliberal policies. The vision of inclusive education for students with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities was swept up in a wave of successive ideological policies and…

In support of their recommendations, recent policy pronouncements in England on behaviour (DFE (Department for Education). 2010. "The Importance of Teaching-The Schools White Paper". London: TSO) and on reform of special educational needs and disabilities make reference, respectively, to educator perceptions of poor behaviour by children…

Debates about the meanings of inclusive education are long-lasting, and the imperative to include disabled students in mainstream schools is currently under threat by the UK government's educational policies. This paper draws on critiques from inclusive education and critical pedagogy literature, as well as on findings from field research in…

Although increasing numbers of students with disabilities are accessing higher education, there is relatively little information about the needs of students with Asperger syndrome (AS). Crucially, students themselves have rarely been included in research examining their needs or the supports they might find helpful. Three focus groups, one with…

Standards-based accountability approaches in education are increasingly being adopted in many industrialised countries. This tends to involve the scrutiny of student performance in national academic tests and then holding schools accountable for subsequent progress. International assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment…

As the rates of diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) increase and more students with ASD are enrolled in mainstream schools, educators face many challenges in teaching and managing social and behavioural development while ensuring academic success for all students. This descriptive, qualitative study, embedded within an inclusive…

This study investigated how parents' views on important aspects of integration correlate with parents' actual experiences concerning the integration into mainstream education of their child with special education needs. It was assumed that the degree of discrepancy between perceived importance and corresponding actual experience…

This article draws on an important distinction between abstract and concrete forms of utopia advanced by the Marxist philosopher of hope, Ernst Bloch, to examine participation and disability in education. Bloch's view of concrete hope, attuned to reason, engaged with social reality and inseparable from human responsibility, is drawn upon to…

This paper, the final paper in the Keeping Connected special issue, presents the key findings of the overall study and focuses on the challenging process of re-imagining a hospital setting as a community of learning for young people in light of these findings. The paper focuses on young people as learners within the overarching themes emanating…

The development of sustainable collaborative partnerships between different role players within an inclusive education system seems to be a continuous challenge in South Africa. The focus of this research study was to understand how teachers view collaboration within an inclusive education system. Open-ended questionnaires were completed by 85…

The present paper discusses issues related to inclusive education and curricula development based on the principles of universal design for learning (UDL), and it reports on the results of a qualitative content analysis of the new national curriculum (NNC) developed for the public Greek-Cypriot schools in Cyprus. According to the findings, the NNC…

As education systems worldwide embrace inclusive education in some form, pre-service teachers need to be prepared to be pedagogically responsive to diverse students and learning needs. While much learning for inclusion takes place in course work in higher education institutions, field experiences, including practicum placements, can complement…

In 1994, Brunei Darussalam adopted an inclusive educational policy and began a number of educational reforms to support the implementation of inclusion within the regular mainstream education system. These reforms include teacher education, which has witnessed the establishment and expansion of training and education opportunities for teachers to…

As a worldwide movement, some forms or stages of inclusive education have been experimented and/or mandated in various countries since the mid-1970s. Integration was piloted in Hong Kong in 1997 and remains the official rhetoric and policy. Three developmental phases of inclusive education, namely, integration, integration in transition to…

Malaysia's move towards inclusion was given impetus by its participation in workshops and conferences set up under the auspices of the United Nations (UNESCO 1990; UN 1993; UNESCO 1994). Inclusive education was introduced in the Education Act 1996 as part of the continuum of services available for children with special needs. The purpose of…