Inclusive education is one of the most debatable issues that has dominated the educational agenda in the last two decades. Based on the benefits of inclusion that have been evidenced by research, it has been argued that there is a need to identify barriers to inclusion as a way for developing practice. Traditionally, barriers to inclusion have been studied within a technical resource-based approach. However, it is argued that there is a need to transcend the discussion of inclusion away from this approach toward greater appreciation of the complex interaction among a range of other factors which exist in schools, community and the social context. It has been proposed that issues such as pedagogy, school organization, curriculum, teacher education, personal beliefs about disabilities and contextual factors should form the basis of future consideration regarding implementing a policy of inclusion. The role of contextual barriers on the teaching and learning process has been largely missing in educational research in Egypt. It is proposed that an increased understanding of teachers' perspectives about barriers to inclusive education will provide important feedback for improving future planning and implementation of inclusion policy in Egypt. Therefore, the focus of this paper is: “What are Egyptian teachers’ perceptions about barriers to inclusive education?”

Multiple sources of qualitative and quantitative data were employed to strengthen the research design and add depth-and-breadth to the research findings. Data was collected using multiple sources of data, including a questionnaire (N=285), interviews (N=12), and field notes to enable triangulation of the data.

Based on both quantitative and qualitative data analysis, four categories of barriers that hinder the implementation of inclusion in the Egypt have been identified: structural-organizational, personal, interpersonal and socio-cultural barriers. Structural-organizational barriers refer to factors related to school context and daily practices: class size, physical accessibility, lack of resources, curriculum and examination system, work load and lack of time and funding, low salaries and private lessons. Interpersonal barriers refer to the influence of the people with whom teachers deal during the educational process: the school administration and inspectors, the parents, and the non-disabled students. Personal barriers refer to factors related to the teachers themselves: lack of training and experience, teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, stress levels, and their interest in teaching. Socio-cultural barriers refer to barriers in the broader social context: social view of school and schooling, social view of disability, and the educational policy.

The findings showed that all these barriers are related and interact to affect teachers’ beliefs about the possibility of the implementation of inclusion in Egypt. Another important finding suggested that teachers’ blurred attitudes towards inclusion can be explained in terms of the idea of “perceived barriers.” Also, the study argues that barriers to inclusion is a very complicated issue that includes many interrelated contextual factors that should be addressed to implement inclusion effectively. The results indicate that differential change procedures should be followed if we would like to enhance learning of children with SEN in inclusive settings.