Changes towards inclusion in the Lithuanian education system

ENIn the last three decades, Lithuania has implemented substantial reforms towards inclusive educational practises on both legislative and further on practical level as well. Despite these positive developments students with special educational needs (SEN) and their families face barriers to access high-quality inclusive education. The aim of this chapter is with the help of secondary data analysis, reveal those possible changes that have occurred in Lithuania, regarding inclusive educational (IE) practices. The data comprised of educational steering documents and Lithuanian research papers, from the last 26-years (between 2010-2015). As a method, content analysis on secondary data was used and the analyses were conducted on two systemic levels. These were policy and practice levels. According to the results there were to be found a clear shift of focus from disorder centred approach towards needs-based education for SEN. However, still today physical barriers alongside with challenging cultural, attitudinal and institutional barriers strongly limit students’ access to inclusive education in Lithuania. Keywords: Diversity; Inclusive education; Systemic changes; Lithuania. [From the publication]