International trends in inclusive education: the continuing challenge to teach each one and everyone

Abstract

Inclusion began in the United States and Europe as a special education initiative on behalf of students with disabilities as early as the 1980s. Now, more than two decades later, schools in these countries are changing as educators, parents, politicians and communities try to prepare for the new challenges and promises of the twenty‐first century. Advances in technology, the global economy and politics, changes in what “counts” as knowledge, and the skills and abilities demanded by the businesses and industries of the future all combine to render obsolete much of what schools have been up until now. The new educational conversation centers on how to design schools and student learning for a future that many educators find nearly impossible to even imagine. How students with disabilities and special education continue to fit into this future is the ongoing challenge of inclusion. While much progress has been made, trends point to some troubling results especially for minority students, and students with some kinds of disabilities. The newest challenge is to make inclusive practices available to everybody, everywhere and all the time. This paper reviews the status of the efforts being made to meet this challenge. In the course of that review, I also describe the five broad changes that systemic school improvement efforts must achieve to continue making progress toward fully inclusive schooling.