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RESEARCH SECTION: Between a rock and a hard place: parents' attitudes to the inclusion of children with special educational needs in mainstream and special schools
Author(s) -
RunswickCole Katherine
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
british journal of special education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1467-8578
pISSN - 0952-3383
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8578.2008.00390.x
Subject(s) - mainstream , inclusion (mineral) , special educational needs , typology , context (archaeology) , legislature , special education , mainstreaming , metropolitan area , special needs , sociology , pedagogy , psychology , special section , medical education , public relations , gender studies , political science , medicine , paleontology , pathology , psychiatry , anthropology , law , biology , engineering physics , engineering
In this paper, Katherine Runswick‐Cole, a researcher at the Research Institute for Health and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University, engages with parents' attitudes to the placement of their children with special educational needs in mainstream and special schools. She sets her review of parents' views within the current policy and legislative context. She then moves on to explore parents' attitudes to inclusion by drawing on the social model of disability as an analytical tool and developing a typology of parental school choices. The study reported in this paper involved 24 parents who were contacted through voluntary organisations and interviewed, either in their own homes or on the telephone. The views of seven professionals were also gathered. The findings reveal that parents' attitudes to mainstream and special schooling are influenced by their engagement with models of disability. The parents' experiences suggest that, despite the shifts in policy we have seen since 1997, the process of inclusive education continues to be fragile.