Evaluation of the Status of Inclusive Education in Law and Practice in Turkey   and the European Context

Engin Yılmaz; Macid Ayhan Melekoğlu

Evaluation of the Status of Inclusive Education in Law and Practice in Turkey and the European Context

Year 2018, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 1 - 17, 01.05.2018

Abstract

Inclusive education is defined as education practice in which the needs of individuals with special
needs are determined, accompanied by the guidance of individualized education program and the
provision of the necessary supportive education services, and with their peers in general education
classes. While national and universal legal regulations state the right to education of the individual as
the most basic right, inclusive education in which the vast majority of individuals with special needs
are involved is also legally secured. The aim of this study is to descriptively examine the situation of
inclusive education related legal regulations and laws in practice in Turkey and Europe. In this
direction, the Google Academic search engine was first screened with the keywords "mainstreaming
law" and” inclusion law". In addition, screening was carried out by the authors with the keywords
"mainstreaming" and “inclusion" in the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education.
Besides, the database of Eskisehir Osmangazi University Library has been screened online with the
“inclusive education law”, “inclusive education act”, “inclusive education Europe”, “inclusive
education policy” and “inclusion” keywords. Some countries examined in this study were Turkey,
United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Greece and Lithuania, and although inclusive education
is based on laws and regulations in those countries, problems and shortcomings are observed in
implementation. On the contrary, in other countries examined in this study, Italy and Ireland, it can be
said that there is no problem in the implementation of regulations. It is considered that through such
practices including arranging class size of an inclusive classroom for students with special needs,
supporting those inclusive classrooms with support teachers educated in the field of special education,
having schools the responsibility to prepare individualized education plan for students and evaluate
the achievement of the targeted goals at the end of the school year, providing in-service training to
principals and teachers, preparing internet based educational software to reach the information easily,
getting support of the non-governmental organizations for works related to special education such as in the Irish example more successful implementation of inclusive education practices will take place.

Keywords

Inclusive Education, Legal Regulations in Special Education, Descriptive Analysis.

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