From vision to reality: views of primary school principals on inclusive education in New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

This paper discusses the findings of a research study that used semi‐structured interviews to explore the views of primary school principals on inclusive education in New South Wales, Australia. Content analysis of the transcript data indicates that principals' attitudes towards inclusive education and their success in engineering inclusive practices within their school are significantly affected by their own conception of what ‘inclusion’ means, as well as the characteristics of the school community, and the attitudes and capacity of staff. In what follows, we present two parallel conversations that arose from the interview data to illustrate the main conceptual divisions existing between our participants' conceptions of inclusion. First, we discuss the act of ‘being inclusive,’ which was perceived mainly as an issue of culture and pedagogy. Second, we consider the mechanics of ‘including,’ which reflected a more instrumentalist position based on perceptions of individual student deficit, the level of support they may require and the amount of funding they can attract.