Education and Conceptions of Democracy: a reply to Bonna Haberman

Against Bonna Haberman, this article asserts that democratic theory contains diverse models of democracy with markedly different values, visions and experiences of the good life. Education in democratic societies is similarly diverse because of the corresponding difference in values between these models, and in almost all of these cases it is strongly content-based. In one model only, that of the critical citizen of moral democracy, is there any ground for neutrality concerning life choices. All other models are strongly partisan in their visions of the good life.     

Student Teachers' Attitudes Towards the Inclusion of Children with Special Needs

Previous research has suggested that teachers' attitudes are crucial to the success of inclusion programs for children with special needs. In the present study, the impact of special needs category (intellectual disabilities versus emotional and behavioural problems) and student teachers' training (being trained to work with either younger or older children) on their attitudes towards inclusion were explored. Ninety three student teachers completed a new measure of attitudes towards inclusion: the Impact of Inclusion Questionnaire (IIQ). Results showed that student teachers were more negative about the impact of children with emotional and behavioural problems on other children, teachers, and the school environment than they were about children with intellectual disabilities. There was little support for the effects of training background or student teachers' previous experience of special needs on their attitudes. Implications for inclusion programs and future research are briefly discussed.