Inclusive Education for the 21st Century: A New Introduction to Special Education

The authors challenge pre-service special education and regular education teachers to develop the knowledge and skills to produce and support "inclusive school communities". Pre-service teachers are introduced to the inclusive community philosophy-include everyone, regardless of intelligence, disability, ethnicity-in supportive, mainstream classrooms and schools in which all student needs are met and all students are offered the same opportunities for success. To meet this growing challenge, the teacher-to-be must embody concepts of inclusion, community, collaboration, democracy, and diversity. Sands, Kozleski and French not only discuss and advocate "inclusion", but go beyond to advocate inclusive school communities, which is both a process and an outcome-providing all students with access to broad educational opportunities.