Eureka! Institutional Repository

This diplomatic thesis is divided into two parts: theory and research. In the theoretical part, the thesis reviews the history of special education both in western and eastern world and in contemporary Greece, establishes inclusive education as an educational practice and clarifies the terms ‘integration’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘inclusive education’. Additionally, there is an examination of the factors that contribute to a successful implementation of inclusive education and the role of the family is recorded and examined thoroughly. The theoretical part concludes with the necessity of new innovative ideas in the education of the students with special educational needs and on how they contribute to the evolution of the students with particularities. The research examines the perceptions and the attitudes of special education teachers toward inclusion of students with special or educational needs in the general class. In addition, the paper studies the benefits and the obstacles that come up as a result of the cooperation developed between special educators and parents of those children. To achieve the purpose of research examining the attitudes of 50 special education teachers working in general and special primary schools in the Prefecture of Thessaloniki, Athens, Samos, Lesvos, Imathia and Arta. Data collection was accomplished by a questionnaire made by the researcher, used for the research needs. The findings of the research showed that the majority of the educators consider their cooperation with the general education teachers and the one they had with the parents to be particularly significant. In fact, they believed that their cooperation with the parents is also beneficial for the students themselves. As a result of their cooperation with the parents, many significant benefits were observed for the students and the most important obstacle observed by the educators that participated the survey is that parents deny to accept the fact that the child has special or educational needs. Moreover, there has been estimated a big value gap between educators and parents referring to the ways the children’s needs need to be satisfied. In this paper the multi-purpose role special education teachers play is highlighted, as they are burdened with growing responsibilities and duties, due to the specialized needs of students.