Including Pupils with Special Educational Needs: beyond rhetoric and towards an understanding of effective classroom practice

Abstract

The future of educational provision for pupils with special educational needs can be seen to be central to educational debate across Europe and the USA. Legislation from many countries has focused upon the means by which the achievement of a more inclusive education system can be achieved. This article suggests that whilst the socio-political and moral arguments for inclusion have been well established, insuf cient attention has been given to the development of an understanding of classroom practices which are conducive to creating an inclusive education system. The moral imperative for inclusion is clear and few teachers would deny that a move towards a more equitable education system should be regarded as a priority. Yet, moves towards the achievement of greater inclusion have been slow. Existing research has demonstrated that under some circumstances inclusion can be ef cacious, yet many teachers remain uncertain with regard to its implementation in their schools. This article argues that there is a need to move forward from debating the justi cation of inclusion and to shift efforts in the direction of an analysis of effective classroom practice to meet the needs of those pupils who are currently presenting the greatest challenges to teachers.The education of pupils with special educational needs was the focus of much discussion and debate throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Indeed, an increase in our understanding of how pupils with special needs learn and our endeavours to establish an education system which is more receptive to a greater range of learning dif culties may be heralded as one of the most signi cant developments within our education system. Legislative procedures such as the 1970 Education Act (Department of Education and Science, 1971) and the Code of Practice on the Identi cation and Assessment of Special Educational Needs (Department for Education, 1994), and the publication of the Warnock Report (HMSO, 1978) radically altered the perception of how pupils with special educational needs might be educated. This further provided an opportunity for a reappraisal of the place of such pupils within the education system as a whole. However, it has been argued (Booth, 1998) that the study of special education per se is fraught with dif culties, not least because of a lack of de nition with regard to its nature and as a result of an inability to make theories of teaching and learning more explicit when considering the needs of all pupils.Of all the issues currently being debated within education in England, it is those which

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