Ideologies and utopias: education professionals' views of inclusion

作者：Paul Croll, Diana Moses · 发表于：European Journal of Special Needs Education · 年份：2000 · DOI：10.1080/088562500361664 · 被引用次数：139 · 研究领域：Collaborative Teaching and Inclusion、Diverse Education Studies and Reforms、Education Systems and Policy

The paper addresses the contrast between different elements in thinking about the appropriate educational placement for children with special educational needs. In particular, it is concerned with the tension between the widespread expressions of support for the principle of inclusion and a continuing level of support for separate special school provision. Evidence from interviews with education officers and headteachers of both special and mainstream schools in the UK demonstrates the support for inclusion as an ideal but also the relatively limited influence of such an ideal on education policy. Considerable reservations were expressed about the feasibility of inclusion, based on the types and severity of children's difficulties and the capacity of mainstream schools to meet them. Contrasting with support for inclusion was a set of views which stressed the primacy of meeting children's individual needs as overriding an ideological commitment to inclusionist ideals. Themes within utopian thinking, in particular, the distinction between hope and desire and the different functions which can be served by utopian ideals, are used to explore tensions and contradictions in the interview responses and in educational thinking more generally.