ABSTRACT
As co-director of the UK Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE), Mark Vaughan was invited to speak at a special education conference in New Zealand in January 1993. He took the opportunity to visit Australia, where he wanted to discover, as far as he could, the extent of inclusive educational policy and practice. In particular, he was struck by a commitment to the study of inclusive education unlike anything that is commonplace in the UK. In this chapter, Vaughan analyses political developments and published research in which the main themes are: an endorsement of the right to be educated in non-discriminatory environments, a drive towards high-quality education systems which are flexible, and schools which will encompass a diversity of educational and social opportunities. He argues that the practice of integration in the UK would benefit greatly from a similar variety of detailed research projects and asks why they do not therefore receive similar support.
