Inclusive Education, Politics and Policymaking

This title offers a critical overview on the history of inclusive education policy and practice developments, with suggestions for possible ways forward. "Inclusive Education, Politics and Policymaking" provides a critical and up to date overview on how far we have come in educational policy and practice in regards to inclusive education, and suggests possible ways forward. The author brings together and critically analyses a wide range of theories and research in exploring inclusion in education. To make this text fully engaging for the reader, activities are presented which have been used on Education Studies courses to encourage students to reflect on their own experiences enabling them to position themselves within the theory and research in this field. These activities are transferable to primary, secondary, further and adult education contexts. "Inclusive Education, Politics and Policymaking" serves as an ideal introduction to this contemporary issue and provokes a critical review and engagement with study in this field for students of Education Studies and MA Education courses. This series presents an authoritative, coherent and focused collection of core texts to introduce the contemporary issues that are covered in Education Studies, and related programmes. Each book develops a key theme in contemporary education, such as: multiculturalism; the social construction of childhood; urban education; eLearning and multimedia; and, language and literacy. A key feature of this series is the critical exploration of education in times of rapid change, with links made between such developments in wider social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Further, contextualised extracts from important primary texts, such as Bourdieu, Piaget and Vygotsky, will ensure students' exposure to dominant contemporary theories in the field of education. Grounded in a strong conceptual, theoretical framework and presented in an accessible way with the use of features such as case studies, activities and visual devices to encourage and support student learning and the application of new concepts, this series will serve well as collection of core texts for the Education Studies student and lecturer.

Anastasia Liasidou is Assistant Professor of Inclusive Education at the European University, Cyprus, and former Senior Lecturer of Inclusive Practice and Education at Roehampton University, London, UK.

Introduction \ 1. Perspectives on Inclusion: Discourses, Politics and Educational Practice \ 2. Pedagogy for Inclusion \ 3. Special Education Policymaking: A Critique \ 4. Understanding Education Policymaking \ 5. Defining the Notion of Ideology: The Interplay of Ideas \ 6. Inclusive Policies and Institutional Conditions \ 7. Cross-cultural Perspectives on Inclusive Education Policymaking \ 8. Conclusions \ Bibliography \ Index