Assessing the inclusivity of three mainstream secondary schools in England: challenges and dilemmas

Journal article


Dimitrellou, Eleni, Hurry, Jane and Male, Dawn 2018. Assessing the inclusivity of three mainstream secondary schools in England: challenges and dilemmas. International Journal of Inclusive Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2018.1511757
AuthorsDimitrellou, Eleni, Hurry, Jane and Male, Dawn
Abstract

The notion of inclusion has gained momentum worldwide, with most countries around the world embracing inclusive policies in their educational systems. However, there is still an ongoing debate as to what is inclusion and hence, the consequent challenge of coming up with an agreed definition, which could then be used to plan for and subsequently, evaluate, inclusion. This study adds to our understanding of inclusion by contrasting objective (i.e. School Census Statistics) and subjective (i.e. self- report questionnaire) measures of inclusivity in three mainstream secondary schools in England and by comparing the perceptions of school inclusivity of different groups of educational practitioners and pupils. The results of this study indicate that inclusion is a ‘slippery’ construct as the perception of inclusion of educational practitioners was found to be affected by their role at school while pupil perception on this matter depended upon their SEND category. However, despite these subjective differences in the way inclusion is perceived, there was also substantial agreement across the different categories of participants with regard to the relative ranking of inclusivity across the three schools suggesting that coming up with overarching themes on what is inclusion is achievable. The article ends with explaining the benefits of reaching an agreed definition at a national level.

KeywordsInclusive education; definitions of inclusion; England; measures of inclusion; special educational needs; views
Year2018
JournalInternational Journal of Inclusive Education
PublisherTaylor & Francis
ISSN1360-3116
1464-5173
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2018.1511757
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/623006
hdl:10545/623006
Publication dates21 Aug 2018
Publication process dates
Deposited02 Oct 2018, 13:40
Accepted07 Aug 2018
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Archived with thanks to International Journal of Inclusive Education

ContributorsUniversity of Derby, Institute of Education, University of Derby, Derby, UK, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK and Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK
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