Inclusion in Education : From Concepts, Values and Critique to Practice

At one level it looks as though there are major changes going on within the field of educating students with disabilities and difficulties. There is a new government which has set education as its main focus for social policy, and the inclusion of students with disabilities and difficulties appears to be an important policy priority. At the time of writing we are waiting for policy developments following consultation over the Green Paper Excellence for All Children (DfEE, 1997). There have also been practical developments of innovatory practices and changing ways of thinking about the field over the last ten years, taking the introduction of the National Curriculum and the establishment of more autonomous school governance as the reference point. The term ‘inclusion’ has come into more common use than the term ‘integration’ in talking about increasing the involvement of students with disabilities and difficulties in the mainstream of education. There has also been an increasing interest in organizational and curriculum responses to diversity and a movement away from focusing on the individual student’s deficits.