Abstract
Throughout the last 40 years, there has been an increasing need to implement effective inclusive school models, and these are often based on the principles emerging from the Salamanca Conference (1994) and the UNESCO Guidelines on Inclusion (2005). Although the current trend is to include students with special education needs (SEN) in a common school environment, the situation is still extremely heterogeneous: there are countries with inclusive school systems, others with partially inclusive models and others that resort to special schools. Many studies have tried to record the most effective practices promoting inclusive education, but their outcomes show we are far from finding conclusive answers. Drawing on this, by means of questionnaires and focus groups involving teachers and parents of pupils with SEN, this research project aims to: 1) provide a definition of best practice; 2) provide evidence of practices that most effectively promote the inclusion of children with SEN in primary schools; 3) record teachers' and parents' opinions of the inclusion practices they have experienced to highlight strengths and weaknesses in order to work on their improvement. Data analysis has shown that teachers and parents have different beliefs regarding the most efficient method of promoting school inclusion. In the study, final-stage concordances and disagreements on the effectiveness of the implemented inclusive practices will be discussed among groups of teachers and parents. This should lead to the design of methods of inclusion that are more suited to users’ needs, and strategies of greater involvement/communication with families and the local government.
Author Information
Eliana Sias, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy
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