Elementary School Teachers' Desired Model for the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities

The study sought to determine which kind of models are suitable for the inclusion of students with disabilities in school and classroom settings, based on the views of general education teachers. Israeli general education teachers were asked to create a constraints free, "Best case scenario" model, for the implementation of inclusion. Participants had difficulties visualizing a "constraints free" scenario, thus most of them preferred to suggest some particular ideas for improving the actual situation. The teachers' responses enabled us to build a single composite model that contains within it seven dimensions: the awareness dimension, the moral dimension, the knowledge dimension, the organizational dimension, the ecological-logistical dimension, the social dimension, and the pedagogic-didactic dimension. These seven dimensions surround a "core" that is concerned with: cultivating a new school climate and language in which inclusion is an integral component of the school's overall character - under the leadership of the school principal. The model's uniqueness lies in its apparent richness, its net-like structure, its holism and--particularly--in its "emergence from the field".