The Development oInclusive Education Practice: A Review of Literature

Abstract

The idea of inclusive education has become a very important element of educationalthinking internationally and has been widely advocated by international organisationssuch as UNESCO. This paper gives a historical and philosophical review of the conceptof inclusive education. The review looks first to the definition of inclusive education, theglobal movement towards educational inclusion, and the shift in terminology from integration to inclusion. It then discusses some issues raised in the literature about inclusiveeducation and later details the influence of the ideological framework. This paper alsoidentifies two main factors that should be considered to ensure the better implementationof inclusive education. This article concludes that, despite the general agreement on theprinciple of inclusion, some elements have been widely contested, such as what it meansin practice and what should be considered inclusion.