Parent Perspectives on Inclusive Education in Rural Alberta, Canada

Abstract

This paper is one of a series of papers examining inclusive education in the con-text of a rural Canadian school district that has adopted a philosophy of inclusion. The results of a survey of 438 parents on their views about aspects of inclusive education at their youngest child’s school are reported. The results indi-cate that the majority of parents were generally positive in their views about and experiences with the inclusive school environment and links to the local communi-ty; however, parents were by no means unanimous in their level of comfort with inclusive education. Tensions were found to exist, and differences in the expe-rience of parents of children who had identified exceptionalities were evident. This study points to the paucity of research on parents and inclusive education and provides some direction for future work in the area.