ABSTRACT
In preparing this case study we spent time over several months in ‘Central School’, an inclusive primary school for around 160 children aged between 5 and 12. We talked with parents, teachers and students, and observed in classrooms and playgrounds. We asked to work with Central School because we were interested to learn how and why a school practised inclusion while other schools excluded children on the basis of disability. We set out to describe what went on in the school and to know why the teachers, parents and others had created and maintained an inclusive school. We tried to understand what people did to create an inclusive setting, and why they were committed to education as a nondiscriminatory activity. We were particularly interested to know if the philosophy of inclusion advanced by the principal, teachers, and the school’s Board of Trustees could be seen in the everyday activities of the teachers and students. As consistencies emerged between what was said and what we saw happening, we became aware of the team approach to problem solving in this school, and the close relationships between the school and its community. We also learned that to be an inclusive school was to attract both support and criticism from the wider educational community, which remains equivocal on the issue of inclusion, despite recent legislation giving all children the right to attend a mainstream state school.
