ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors explore the implications of recent education policy developments for inclusive education in Cyprus. A framework for inclusion is founded upon a comprehensive understanding of the local context and the specific dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. The authors suggest that ways of developing more inclusive educational and social responses to their exclusion. Inclusive education is broadly ‘understood as a reform that supports and welcomes diversity amongst all learners’. The underpinning philosophy of inclusive education systems has in the past drawn on two dominant and contradictory models of disability, namely the medical and social models. Examples of socio-economic factors are poor nutrition or contaminated water, while cultural factors refer to the ideological construction of the notion of disability or difference. An example of a coherent inclusive education policy in practice is the Finnish system. Inclusive education is a slippery and confusing concept ‘that means different things to different people’.
