Inclusive Education: Historical Evolvement and Future Perspective
Inclusive Education: Historical Evolvement and Future Perspective

Summary/Abstract: This article seeks to shed light on various inclusive education (IE) aspects within the current educational policy landscape. IE stands as a beacon of progress, aiming to provide equal opportunities for quality education to all pupils, accommodating diverse and adapted responses to each learner's needs and unique abilities while eliminating discrimination and exclusion. Despite being considered a key educational goal in the Western world, implementation challenges arise owing to confusion between 'integration', 'inclusion', and IE. To clarify this confusion, the article examines IE's roots and developmental stages, considering societal perceptions that shaped them. The goal is to establish clear boundaries for the concept, facilitating a unified educational discourse. Special attention will be given to an examination of IE in Israel in 2024, as a test case of a society coping with broad societal heterogeneity, reflected in its education system. The article claims that to promote IE, the existing separation between regular and special education, which currently operates as two parallel and separate tracks, should be abolished. As long as a fragmented educational discourse persists, IE will continue to face conflicting voices of inclusiveness in theory and exclusion in practice. Hence, it is necessary to create a single educational heterogeneous inclusive system to address all pupils' diverse needs without separating between types of learners. This change will enable the development of an exemplary society that promotes values of equity, diversity, choice, and social justice.

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