Research, Experts, and Politicians - the Strange Life of the Idea of Inclusive Education in the Czech Republic
Abstract
The impact of knowledge from educational research on political decisions is always mediated and affects it if it clearly legitimises it. The legitimacy of the decision is determined by its strong "cognitive foundations", i.e. by the persuasiveness of the knowledge politicians recognise when that knowledge is in line with society's shared values.
The analysis of the introduction of inclusive education in the Czech Republic identified a weak link between the key concept of modifiability and the reference idea of equality of chances. Th e mediators transmitting the cognitive core of the political decision were not researchers, but the so-called experts emphasising organisational barriers to the education of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools.
Th eir voices were amplified by the media and, as a result, led to the reform, the knowledge core of which has not been used. The cognitive foundations of the change were not challenged with the possibilities and limits of the (cognitive) modifi ability of pupils' dispositions and withthe concept of innate and unchangeable learning prerequisites.
Only the controversy over the abstract humanistic ideal of equality of chances remained on the scene.