Abstract
Content
The paper will discuss the present political climate
towards inclusion, which encourages a concept requiring a collegiality between
mainstream and special schools that was once available in the 1970's until the
mid 1980's but has been limited by the competitive nature of schools in the
league table culture. Its' underpinning statement will be to point out the
systems that have helped extend a field of Special Education far beyond it's
intended remit and that these same systems that have created many of the
'special needs' are being recreated. It will conclude with what steps need to
be taken to turn these events around.
This paper is based on the author's twenty-five years experience as an educator in Special Education. It discusses the author's involvement as teacher in-charge of early mainstreaming programmes, where pupils with a full range of special educational needs were 'integrated' in a high school in Detroit, to attempts, as a Headteacher, in the current climate of education to extend educational opportunities for pupils with SEN, who have often been denied their entitlement to a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum.
The paper is not a rear guard attempt to promote the position of special schools. It will put forward the arguments for constructive change that can imbed the theoretical and intellectual promotion of inclusion into practical initiatives. It will also discuss the author's own findings while researching regular education initiatives and mainstream programmes in Michigan, USA
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