Education of the Deaf in Australia and Norway: A Comparative Study of the Interpretations and Applications of Inclusion

Inclusion is a term and process that is culturally, politically, medically, philosophically, and historically relative in its interpretations in the education of the deaf. The present study is a comparative analysis of two substantially different education systems for deaf students, those of Norway and Australia. The study objective was to elucidate the sources of some of these differences and to examine the interpretations and applications of inclusion that are inherent in the two countries' policies and practices, and in recent research evaluations. Significant differences exist in the national contexts and in the manner in which inclusion is understood and applied in Norway and Australia; the study reports on recent research examinations of inclusion in the two countries and finds that the transitions from policy to practice seem questionable.