ABSTRACT

In the last three decades, Lithuania has implemented substantial reforms towards inclusive educational practises on both legislative and also practical levels. Despite these positive developments, students with special educational needs (SEN) and their families face barriers to accessing high-quality inclusive education. The aim of this chapter is, with the help of secondary data analysis, to reveal some possible changes that have occurred in Lithuania regarding inclusive educational (IE) practices. The data are comprised of educational steering documents and Lithuanian research papers from the last 26 years (between 2010 and 2015). As a method, content analysis of secondary data was used, and the analyses were conducted on two systemic levels – policy and practice. The results find that there was a clear shift of focus from disorder-centred approaches towards needs-based education for SEN. However, physical barriers, alongside challenging cultural, attitudinal and institutional barriers, still strongly limit students’ access to inclusive education in Lithuania today.