International Issues in SEND and Inclusion brings together a collection of cutting-edge researches on approaches to special education needs and disability education, across 6 continents and within 12 countries. Written by authors who are experts in their own countries in relation to special educational needs and disability, the book provides a unique knowledge and understanding of different international perspectives in special educational needs, disability and inclusion. The chapters present extended case studies and reflect on current policy, practice and theory within that context, challenging assumptions which can dominate the policy and practice of inclusive education. Each of the six continents has a separate section and introduction within the book to offer a relevant approach and context for analysis. The book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of inclusion, special educational needs and disability, teacher education and comparative education.

"Inclusive education had its origins in the move of disabled children from segregated special settings to mainstream classrooms, on the premise that every child has the right to access the curriculum and other experiences of publicly funded schools. This book reports on studies by leading researchers in the USA, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands that set out to examine the meanings of inclusion in their various cultures and school systems. The emphasis in each of the studies is on attending to the voices of those most directly involved - the students, parents and teachers. They tell us about the complexity of the issues in this area, suggesting guidelines for teachers and other professionals working with disabled children."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Timely and useful resource that guides educators in using UDL in their classrooms while helping students transition to adult life.

Inclusive education has become a phrase with international currency shaping the content of conferences and national educational policies around the world. But what does it mean? Is it about including a special group of disabled learners or students seen to have 'special needs' (them) or is it concerned with making educational institutions inclusive, responsive to the diversity of all their students (us)? In this unique comparative study, the editors have brought together an international team of researchers from eight countries to develop case-studies which explore the processes of inclusion and exclusion within a school or group of schools set in its local and national context. The study includes classroom observation, the experiences of the school day of students and interviews with staff, students, parents and school governors. Through an innovative juxtaposition of the case-studies and commentaries on them, differences of perspective within and between countries are revealed and analysed. The study arose from a dissatisfaction with previous research, which presents 'national perspectives' or seeks findings that have global significance. This book avoids such simplification and draws attention to the problems of translation of practice across cultures. The editors start from an assumption of diversity of perspective which like the diversity of students within schools can be viewed as problematic or as a resource to be recognized and celebrated.

The aim of this text is to convey the experience of excluded children, their parents, teachers and remaining classmates. Looking at all those involved, the book offers reflections on inclusion and exclusion in the context of schools that do not cater well for diversity. The contributors and issues raised are international, giving the reader everything necessary for considering concepts and practices across countries and cultures, and highlighting ways in which schools might bring down the barriers to participation and learning.

In this insightful text, the editors reflect on contributions from scholars representing Bangladesh, Greece, India, Israel, New Zealand, Switzerland, UK and USA, by showing how the majority of educational and social institutions in both developed and developing countries have failed to overcome the many barriers to an effective integrated system of education, suggesting ways as to how these barriers might be challenged. By looking closely at the overt and covert injuries of educational and social exclusion, a variety of approaches to overcoming the consequences of those challenges is proposed, drawing together strands of social theory, research data and conceptualisations for social action.