Exploration of special and inclusive education practice in Cyprus : on the road to Ithacas : moving towards inclusion

摘要

This thesis is about the everyday practice of inclusion in Cyprus. When I started this work I believed that my work must have a practical application, in the educational life of Cyprus. Being a fan and a practitioner of inclusion, I have the chance to be a member of the education community trying to apply inclusion in the everyday life of school in primary education in Cyprus. My working experience, together with academic knowledge, helped me to understand more deeply the importance of creating change. I wanted to evaluate the application of inclusion, and I wanted this investigation to come from real findings, from everyday life of schools. This is why I have chosen to investigate two different types of schools. The first school is what we name in Cyprus "special" school and the second one is a primary school which is trying to apply inclusion. The research data that I gathered came from various perspectives, since I wanted to have a clear view of the issue. I decided to use qualitative methods of gathering the data and the way I have decided to present the results was through writing different stories. This way of presenting the data of the research, provided me with more freedom in order to write everything that I wanted to. Since I wanted my work to have practical implications I am concluding this thesis by suggesting several changes that have to take place in order to implement real inclusion in Cyprus. The main finding from my research is that inclusion involves complex feelings and attitudes and thus it cannot be applied in a simplistic way. Inclusion is a social phenomenon and it concerns change not only in the field of education, but also in the whole society.