Chapter 3.1: Inclusion of Children with Special Needs as an Opportunity to Increase the Quality of Teaching in Israel

Inclusion of children with special needs into mainstream schools reflects a society’s view of their role as caregivers for all citizens, regardless of any understanding of the benefits that educating for inclusion might have. Although inclusion should be conducted throughout all areas of life, frequently people refer to it only as an academic process that teachers must be responsible for. Thus, such inclusion provides teachers with the opportunity to lead future generations towards the development of societies that indeed practice inclusion as a natural process. However, even if we decide to focus on the process only from the school perspective, in practice teachers cannot conduct it efficiently without proper training. This chapter is thus designed to promote the understanding of possible implications of the new inclusion policy in Israeli elementary schools which will allow the development of innovative and quality teacher-training programmes, and the quality of teaching in general.