Background To Context

Inclusion, as described by the council for Disabled Children, is a journey with a clear direction and purpose: equality of opportunity for all children and young people (Stobbs 2008). As a policy, it focuses on the right of all disabled young people to be included in all aspects of everyday life and that such a vision can be achieved over time.

In the context of schools, inclusive education is an approach, which aims to develop a child-focus by acknowledging that all children are individuals with different learning needs and speeds (Khalsa and Miyake 2005). Ultimately, inclusive education must contribute to the goal of promoting an inclusive society, one which enables all children and adults, whatever their age, gender, ability, ethnicity, impairment to participate in and contribute to that society. Dissertation Literature Review

UK legislation for over 25 years has stipulated that disabled children and young people should be educated in their local mainstream school provided this does not affect the efficient education of other children. Since then, the development of inclusion has become an increasingly dominant policy imperative in the education system here in the UK.

In 1997, the new Government published Excellence for all children-meeting Special Educational Needs (DfEE Department for Education and Employment 1997). A clear commitment to promoting greater inclusion was signalled, as was the need to develop the role of special schools. The government in 1999 set up a Disability Rights Task Force which published its report titled From Exclusion to Inclusion and recommended “A strengthened rights for parents and children with statements of special educational needs to be place at a mainstream school” (Disability Rights Task Force on Civil Rights for Disabled People 1999).

More specifically, the SEN Disability Act 2001 promotes the right of children with SEN to attend a mainstream school. The right to mainstream education is further supported by the National Curriculum Statement (1999) and the revised framework for the inspection of schools, Evaluating Educational Inclusion (Oxley 2004). Dissertation Literature Review

However, critics have argued that implementation of inclusion policy in mainstream schools has at best being a distraction or worse, detrimental to the standard raising agenda of schools. This research proposal presents the background, research questions, research approaches and techniques of research concerning the issues related with implementation of inclusion policy in schools. This paper presents the techniques of data collection, evaluation and review of the primary research questions linked to the main problem of the research.

I will carry out the research in a context of primary school setting and will analyse the impacts of implementation of inclusion in this setting. The research will not only provide me with significant data for observations but it will also help in enhancing my personal skills as a teacher and will enable me to evaluate the techniques which can be implemented to improve the implementation of inclusion in a primary school setting. I will directly analyse the students in a classroom consisting of both disabled and non disabled persons to evaluate the impact of inclusion. The research will help schools both in the local setting and the national arena to implement inclusion based on this research study. The findings and conclusion of the current research will not only help in implementing inclusion in schools but will also help effective inclusion in other parts of society and help disabled persons in becoming active members of the society. My role in this study is not limited to a researcher as I will also evaluate the observations and findings of this study from a teacher’s perspective as well and my fellow teachers will help in achieving the main aims and objectives of the study. Dissertation Literature Review