Inclusive Schools for an Inclusive Society

Gary Thomas (Professor of Special Needs at The University of the West of England, Bristol) contends that mainstream schools should assume responsibility for all children, not only as there is firm empirical evidence to show that inclusive schools are good for all children, but more importantly because of the legitimacy, the justice and the timeliness of the inclusive position. Initially he discusses a definition of inclusion and notes how its meaning is different from that of integration , and goes on to examine some of the evidence for the success of inclusion in schools. He then places its success in the context of the values which lead to an espousal of inclusion, considers an inclusive ethic against the more general move to inclusion in society, and sketches out the theoretical and political context. He concludes by suggesting that the inevitability of the change to inclusion means that administrators should plan constructively for desegregation rather than fighting rearguard actions against it.