Diana Moses

Ideologies and utopias: education professionals' views of inclusion

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 childrens 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 childrens 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.

Special educational needs across two decades: survey evidence from english primary schools

Abstract The article considers the perceived prevalence of special educational needs in English primary schools and changes in this prevalence over two decades and relates these to issues in education policy, teacher practice and the concept of special educational needs. The studies considered are two major surveys of schools and teachers, the first conducted in 1981 and the second conducted in the same schools in 1998. Important features of both studies were their scale and the exceptionally high response rates achieved. Two central findings were the perception of teachers that special educational needs were widespread and of an increase in special educational needs over time: perceived levels of special educational needs were one in five children in 1981, which had risen to one in four children in 1998. Learning difficulties were by far the most common aspects of special educational needs but many children had multiple difficulties, and behavioural difficulties were seen by teachers as the main barriers to inclusion. The very high figures for prevalence raise questions about the continued usefulness of the concept of special educational need distinct from broader issues of achievement.

Pragmatism, Ideology and Educational Change: The Case of Special Educational Needs

A major theme of recent debate and policy development in the area of special education is that of inclusion: the placement of all pupils in mainstream schools and the development of curriculum and pedagogy to meet the needs of all. Analysis of national statistical data shows some movement in this direction, but of a slow and very uneven kind. An exploration of the concepts of pragmatism to describe an important aspect of LEA decision making and of ideology to describe an important aspect of pressures for inclusion helps to explain this pattern of development. The paper concludes that both approaches require further systematic empirical data on the outcomes of different patterns of educational provision.

Perspectives on the National Curriculum in Primary and Secondary Schools

Summary Data on responses to the National Curriculum were gathered from personal interviews with a sample of 50 primary school head teachers, 304 primary class teachers and 223 secondary heads of department. In the primary schools concern centred around an anticipated increase in the level of assessment and record‐keeping and curriculum documentation. Increased levels of science and technology in the curriculum were also anticipated and these were the areas in which primary teachers felt in greatest need of support. In secondary schools changes were anticipated in individual subject curricula, especially in the fields of science and modem languages. The results suggest that there is great concentration in schools on a few specific areas of concern and that this may be at the expense of wider issues involved in the National Curriculum.

The involvement of teachers in initial teacher education: a study of the Simon Fraser University Professional Development Programme

Abstract The extent to which teacher educators should have ‘recent and relevant’ classroom experience is an important and somewhat contentious issue, a radical approach to which is offered by the Professional Development Programme (an analogue of the British PGCE) of Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. Fourteen per cent of teachers in British Columbia are graduates of this one‐year Programme in which much of teacher education, particularly the introduction to teaching method and supervision of the long period of teaching practice, is by experienced class teachers (Faculty Associates) on short‐term secondment to the Faculty of Education. A rationale of the Programme is that student teachers come into close contact with excellent practitioners, at the same time releasing Faculty members for academic endeavours. Since the start of the Programme there has been a growing tendency for Associates to stay in post longer (two years or more); a few remain still longer as coordinators. In a limited evaluation...