The efforts of disabled activists and progressive scholars to promote equal opportunities in education for disabled children seem to have eventually produced positive results. As is evident in international legislation and agreements, such as the Salamanca Declaration, there is a strong movement during the last few years towards the implementation of inclusive education. In this way, at least in theory, disabled children have the right to attend mainstream school alongside their peers. In practice, however, just being present in a school that is not ‘special’ does not necessarily imply that disabled children are truly included. In fact,the legacy of special education seems to impinge on the efforts and the struggle for the establishment of inclusion (Symeonidou & Phtiaka, 2009˙Vlachou, 2004). As a result, inclusive education has become a contentious area of public and education policy. Thereby the quest for implementing inclusive policy and practice is fundamentally an endeavor to radical de- and re-construct the educational system.Hence all the parameters that block inclusion should be identified and critically examined, so as to find a way to overcome the barriers, develop effective inclusive practice and facilitate change (Barton & Armstrong, 2001˙Tomlinson, 2012).
This is not an easy task, since barriers to inclusion do not exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, they are closely related to the particular context, which defines both official policy and unofficial practice. In this way, contemporary schooling seems to support processes and functions that produce and perpetuate social discrimination. As is evident in the modern neoliberal education systems, besides information and knowledge, schooling transfers cultural values, social rules and stereotypes, as directed by the most powerful class in society (Apple, 2005˙Giroux, 2011). Given that disabled people usually come from less powerful groups, they are not listened to and they do not participate in decision making. Moreover, being trapped within an intense and competitive system, they are evaluated according to their ability to achieve a high rank in typified examinations, which do not take into consideration any individual needs. In this way the disapproving education system cultivates a fear of failure and increases prejudice against disabled children. As a result, disabled children get less and inferior education, which ties them to the lower place of social hierarchy, regardless of their attending mainstream or special schools (Erevelles, 2005˙Oliver, 1993).
It seems then that, in order to combat barriers to inclusion it is essential to understand what exactly is happening and how deeply it is rooted. In other words, it is necessary to have a closer look at the context. Trying to understand the situation in our country first, so as to have a basis for comparison at international level, we decided to begin our research with a thorough investigation of the evolution of the Cyprus education system. Cyprus is situated in the East Mediterranean Sea and she is a member of the European Union. It has been an independent country since 1960. Since 1999, the Law decrees that disabled children are entitled to attend mainstream schools. There they usually receive support in special classes or special units, for a period that ranges from a few hours to a full week. Research findings reveal (Liasidou, 2007˙Symeonidou and Phtiaka, 2009) that there are still significant barriers to inclusion of disabled children. To discover why, we need to question the role of the context.
