Research questions:

What are the perceptions and attitudes of policy makers and position holders from the Ministry of Education with regard to pupils with SEN?

What are the similarities and differences between the perceptions of special educators in leadership positions and their colleagues from regular education?

Theoretical framework: Nearly two decades ago the Salamanca Conference on Special Needs Education endorsed the idea of inclusive education (UNESCO, 1994). During the subsequent years, there have been considerable efforts in many countries to move educational policy and practice in a more inclusive direction (Ainscow & Cesar, 2006). Yet, despite national policies that promote mainstreaming and inclusion, there is evidence of confusion with regard to the definition of the idea of inclusion and its implementation. There is much work being carried out by UNESCO (2009) and by the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (Bauer et al.,2009) with regard to setting policy guidelines and offering key principles for promoting inclusion.  

The integration of students with SEN in regular schools in Israel has been practiced on a voluntary basis since the mid-fifties and became mandatory in the early 1990's following the Law of Special Education of 1988. The latter has been recently amended (2003) to emphasize the mandate to include children with SEN in general education settings. By the 1998-99 school-year all schools in Israel were expected to implement inclusion (Al-Yagon & Margalit, 2001). These mandates echoed commitments and concerns of legislators and educators world-wide as stated in the Circular of the Director General of the Ministry of Education (58/9, May 1998):

“One of the main cornerstones of the Israeli educational system is its commitment to respond to the educational needs of all students and in particular to those students with learning difficulties, in inclusive rather than exclusive settings… most of the exceptional students can and should be included… students with disabilities will benefit from inclusion both socially and academically” (ibid 5).

However, both the interpretation and the implementation of these directives are not clear-cut (Avissar, 2012).

A number of researchers and policy analysts have argued that it would be naïve to assume that legal mandates will ensure the development of appropriate practices. Positive perceptions may encourage appropriate policies and practices while negative attitudes tend to sustain lower expectations and inappropriate practices (Slee, 2001).

This exploratory study is a first attempt to find out how different policy makers and those in leadership positions at the Ministry of Education in Israel perceive the inclusion of youngsters with SEN.

Ainscow, M. & Cesar, M. (2006). Inclusive education ten years after Salamanca: setting the agenda. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 21(3), 231-238. Al-Yagon, M. & Margalit, M. 2001. Special and inclusive education in Israel. Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies 6, no. 2: 93-112. Avissar, G. (2012). Inclusive education in Israel from a curriculum perspective: An exploratory study. European Journal of Special Needs Education. (Accepted). Bauer, L., Kaprova, Z., Michaelidou, M., & Pluhar, C. (2009). Key Principles for Promoting Quality in Inclusive Education. Odense, Denmark: European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. Slee, R. (2001). Inclusion in practice: Does practice make perfect? Educational Review, 53(2), 113-123. UNESCO (1994). Final report – World conference on special needs education: Access and quality. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO (2009). Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education. Paris: UNESCO.