Experiencing an ‘inclusive’ education: parents and their children with ‘special educational needs’

Abstract

This paper focuses on the experiences of British parents who have children identified with ‘special education needs’ within mainstream education. Expectations of mainstream education can have a negative affect on parents when a child is unable to maintain his or her education within a mainstream school. In England and Wales, ‘inclusion’ within mainstream schools is implemented by the current government and promoted as anti‐exclusionary. However, current research indicates that actual ‘inclusion’ (the child experiencing inclusion as well as being placed in a mainstream environment) is not necessarily occurring in practice. As it stands, the conflict is between desires to embrace difference based on a philosophy of ‘equal rights’ (‘inclusive’ education) and prioritising educational performance, structuring it in such a way that it leaves little room for difference and creativity due to the highly structured testing and examination culture. Qualitative analysis of parents who have children identified with special educational needs indicate that they have hopes and expectations for their children. These hopes and expectations are challenged recurrently.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all the parents who participated in this research. Thanks too for the support and useful comments from the anonymous referees, Eamonn Carrabine and Martin Richards. The author would also like to thank the ESRC for supporting this research (PTA‐026‐27‐0563). As always, however, any mistakes can only be down to the author.

Notes

All participants’ names and those names referred to in their quotes are fictitious for the purposes of anonymity.