European Journal of Special Needs Education 

About: European Journal of Special Needs Education is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Special education & Inclusion (education). It has an ISSN identifier of 0885-6257. Over the lifetime, 1240 publications have been published receiving 28010 citations.

Teachers' attitudes towards integration / inclusion: a review of the literature

Abstract: On the assumption that the successful implementation of any inclusive policy is largely dependent on educators being positive about it, a great deal of research has sought to examine teachers' attitudes towards the integration and, more recently, the inclusion of children with special educational needs in the mainstream school. This paper reviews this large body of research and, in so doing, explores a host of factors that might impact upon teacher acceptance of the inclusion principle. The analyses showed evidence of positive attitudes, but no evidence of acceptance of a total inclusion or ‘zero reject’ approach to special educational provision. Teachers' attitudes were found to be strongly influenced by the nature and severity of the disabling condition presented to them (child-related variables) and less by teacher-related variables. Further, educational environment-related variables, such as the availability of physical and human support, were consistently found to be associated with attitudes to incl...

Understanding teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy in inclusive education: implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education

Abstract: Although there are clear differences in national policies regarding inclusive education, the international debate has not fully considered their impact on implementation within different countries, for example on teacher education. This paper reports on results from a comparative study of in-service teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy in implementing inclusive practices in South Africa and Finland and its implications for teacher education in these countries. A sample of 319 South African and 822 Finnish primary and secondary education teachers completed a questionnaire containing a scale measuring sentiments, attitudes and concerns on inclusive education as well as a scale measuring teachers’ self-efficacy in implementing inclusive practices. A comparative analysis indicated that whereas the overall sentiments towards disabilities were positive in both countries, teachers had many concerns about the consequences of including children with disabilities in their classrooms. While the most positive aspect...

The influence of teaching experience and professional development on Greek teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion

Abstract: On the assumption that the successful implementation of any inclusive policy is largely dependent on educators being positive about it, a survey was undertaken into the attitudes of Greek teachers to inclusion. The 155 respondents were general education primary teachers drawn from one region of Northern Greece, with a proportion deliberately selected from schools identified as actively implementing inclusive programmes. The analysis revealed positive attitudes towards the general concept of inclusion but variable views on the difficulty of accommodating different types of disabilities in mainstream classrooms. Teachers who had been actively involved in teaching pupils with SEN held significantly more positive attitudes than their counterparts with little or no such experience. The analysis also demonstrated the importance of substantive long-term training in the formation of positive teacher attitudes towards inclusion. The paper concludes with recommendations for developing critical professional development courses that can result in attitudinal change and the formulation of genuinely inclusive practices.

International trends in inclusive education: the continuing challenge to teach each one and everyone

Abstract: Inclusion began in the United States and Europe as a special education initiative on behalf of students with disabilities as early as the 1980s. Now, more than two decades later, schools in these countries are changing as educators, parents, politicians and communities try to prepare for the new challenges and promises of the twenty‐first century. Advances in technology, the global economy and politics, changes in what “counts” as knowledge, and the skills and abilities demanded by the businesses and industries of the future all combine to render obsolete much of what schools have been up until now. The new educational conversation centers on how to design schools and student learning for a future that many educators find nearly impossible to even imagine. How students with disabilities and special education continue to fit into this future is the ongoing challenge of inclusion. While much progress has been made, trends point to some troubling results especially for minority students, and students with so...

From integration to inclusion: focusing global trends and changes in the western European societies

Abstract: The first part of this paper addresses the question whether the new terminology that came into use after the Salamanca Statement meant only a linguistic shift or a new educational policy agenda. The answer given in the paper is that the shift to inclusion served a double purpose: Unesco’s actions in the field in the early 1990s implied a policy vision for a global context and needed a new term to avoid giving the wrong signals to significant actors on a wider international arena. In the west, the two notions are frequently mixed, mostly considered as overlapping and without due recognition of the different cores of the two terms after Salamanca, that is a shift of policy focus, from special education to responding to the diversity within a common school for all students. This focused interpretation of inclusion, not to be mixed with integration, it is argued in the paper, is described and illustrated by reference to some recent innovations in the UK. As an instrument for moving practice towards more inclusive schools, the English Index for Inclusion has also obtained a certain international attention. However, tensions concerning reform priorities, that is whether focusing strategies and innovations on special education or on diversity in the common school, continuously seem to exist in the western societies. In the second part of the paper, the question whether inclusion has had any noticeable effect on the school systems in the western societies is therefore raised and examined in relation to two sets of statistical data reported for 14 European countries (obtained about 1990 and 1996). The analyses and discussions of the data have been inspired by the socio-historical perspective and related concepts (inclusiveness, segmentation, vertical vs horizontal divides) used by Fritz Ringer and colleagues in analysing the rise of the modern educational system in Europe.