There is an increasing emphasis on the principle and practices of inclusive education in recent times demonstrated both by the fact that important international educational organisations propel this idea and by the fact that it has become a priority in educational agendas of governments at a global level (Slee, 2011). Europe is no exception to that, although there are differentiations in policy and practice between different countries (Emanuelsson et al. 2005). Existing literature reveals the key factors that can facilitate or hinder the fostering of inclusive practices, which include the development of positive attitudes; the supportive policies and leadership practices; the implementation of research based school and classroom processes; the adoption of flexible curricula and pedagogy; the involvement of the community; the reflection on educational practices; as well as necessary training and resources (Loreman, 2007).

In the different compilations of facilitating factors to inclusion, such as the above, a theme that appears to be systematically assigned a prominent role is school leadership. This appears reasonable when considering that inclusion is increasingly conceptualised as an educational reform (Liasidou & Svensson, 2012; Frederickson & Cline, 2009) and that there is strong evidence suggesting that leadership is key in supporting educational change (Gunter, 2012).

In this framework, the present study examines the role of headteachers of primary mainstream schools, who are key agents of leadership, in relation to the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs. Although according to the theory of distributed leadership (Spillane et al., 2001) in a school there are both formal and non-formal leadership positions (MacBeath and Dempster, 2009) and thus many people in a school may be exercising leadership, the current study takes into consideration that leadership is not limited to headteachers, but focuses only on them. In addition, it is the application of the ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), which demonstrates that although only the direct environment of children would be expected to influence them and their inclusion, there are also other factors, such as headteachers’ leadership practices that play an important role. Consequently, when it comes to inclusion, even though, for example, teachers are straightforwardly involved with children and can indeed mould the conditions in a way that could create inclusive or non-inclusive environments, there are also other important individuals (in this case headteachers) and bidirectional relationships between individuals, which may be crucial in terms of this (Schmidt and Venet 2012).

Overall, this study intends to examine the junction of the fields of school leadership, from the perspective of headteachers, and inclusive education, from the perspective of students with Special Educational Needs, researching in depth inclusive practice in the Greek educational context, where there is lack of research in the field.

The particular research aims posed in the framework of this study, which are set in the context of public primary mainstream schools in Epirus, which is a region of Greece, include the examination of:

1. the practices of headteachers in terms of promoting inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs;

2. the challenges and opportunities that arise for headteachers in terms of promoting inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs;

3. the views of headteachers in terms of how they could overcome the challenges, take advantage of the opportunities, and further promote inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs, through their leadership role.

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