Including all children in education is the major challenge facing educational systems around the world, in both developing and developed countries. Drawing on research evidence and ideas from a range of international literature, this paper argues that leadership practice is a crucial element in gearing education systems towards inclusive values…

This article explores notions of support and collaboration between teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) in two secondary schools in England. In particular it reviews how team members created opportunities and established collaborative practices aimed at including each other in the task of providing support for children who are described as…

This paper examines developments in inclusive education in Bulgaria (BG) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) in the context of actual and desired accession to the European Union respectively. It seeks to provide insights into the national special education traditions in these countries and aims to establish how these have influenced current…

In this article, the authors share a framework for preparing for and implementing inclusive Pre-kindergarten classrooms based on their experiences working with an interdisciplinary study group comprised of two Pre-K teachers, one early childhood special education teacher, and two university professors, one traditional early childhood and one…

This study investigated the opinions of general education teachers working in public elementary schools in Turkey regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities into their classrooms and their willingness also to include students with more severe learning disabilities. One hundred and ninety-four general education teachers completed the…

This paper presents an initiative at the University of Iceland-School of Education aimed at developing school and university partnerships. The discussion addresses whether and how this reform could support inclusive teacher education. Teacher education in Iceland is currently under reconstruction because of new legislation, requiring a master's…

The data in this paper represent the experiences and perspectives of parents and teachers who worked as communities of practice, designing support plans for the inclusion of three students with intellectual disabilities in general education classrooms. Their reflections, obtained through interviews and questionnaires, show how they constructed…

This article highlights the potential for service learning as a pedagogy and intervention for students with disabilities. The article also conceptualizes the role of a school social worker in contributing to the development and implementation of an inclusive service-learning program. Findings are based on a qualitative study involving nineteen…

Meeting the needs of children with disabilities requires strategies for engaging each and every child as an individual and facilitating their participation as a member of a group. The use of the project approach meets the needs of individual children by building on an awareness of children's interests and high expectations. All early childhood…

"Inclusion" is not a mechanism for relocating educationally disadvantaged youngsters in mainstream rather than in special schools. Rather, inclusion implies a whole school approach to social relations and production of meaning reached through processes of negotiation between parents, teachers and children. Such an approach places equal value upon…

The paper discusses the idea and purpose of Child-Friendly Schools (CFSs) initiated by the UNICEF. It analyses the implications of CFSs in terms of improving children's health and nutrition, promoting gender equality, protecting children's rights, re-defining education quality and creating positive psycho-emotional environment at schools.…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the collaborative efforts between an Early Childhood Teacher Education Program and a Child Disability Health Care Program to incorporate a transdisciplinary model in the preparation of early childhood teachers in inclusive practice. Recent studies suggest essential components of teacher preparation in early…

A critical factor in the success of inclusive schools is effective parent involvement in the education of children with special educational needs. This article reports the results of a survey of the practice of parent involvement in inclusive primary schools in a large city in New Zealand. Interviews were conducted with 21 primary school…

This article reports the results of the third and final phase of a two-year research study on the impact of New York State's school libraries on student achievement and motivation. Results of phase I and phase II are briefly reviewed to provide the context for phase III methods and findings. Phase III comprised (1) qualitative research that…

In an effort to promote quality inclusive schooling for all children in New York State, the New York State Department of Education Vocational and Education Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) teamed with Syracuse University School of Education to develop a consortium of over 65 colleges and universities state-wide with teacher…