Analysing inclusive education policy

The Hong Kong government proposed a three-year pilot project of arranging a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) in the schools. Using this new policy as a case study, this study aims to develop a better understanding of inclusive education policy in a Chinese context and to identify what concerns of this policy in practice that can help the implementation of policy change. This presentation uses critical discourse analysis to analyse the government policy papers and the responses from the public based on multiple sources. The findings suggest that this policy attempts to satisfy both the economic and educational needs together. Yet, there is a gap between the expectations of the government and understanding of the community. Future research is recommended to explore and gain broad and in-depth understandings of added values and effects of SENCOs’ role on inclusive practices in the pilot schools in contrast to those existing provisions.