| Summary: | The purpose of this study is to describe principals’ perceptions and experiences of inclusion of students belonging to special school. The study is of qualitative approach and is based on interviews with principals. All the interviewed principals, has both past and/or present experiences of placement of students belonging to special school. The study is based on three different definitions of inclusion, the first is the community-oriented definition that refers to a system where differences should be seen as an asset. The individual-oriented definition highlights that the situation will be determined on the individual students. The placement-oriented definition is somewhat of a misunderstanding of the concept of inclusion, and means only a physical placement of the student. The results show that there is a gap between intentions and implementation, and the concept is described to include several components of the informants in the study. In the study, inclusion can be described as complex. There are good intentions of all principals to work including, but the informants all share both positive and negative experiences regarding placement of students belonging to special school in elementary school. Informants identify opportunities as well as obstacles related to inclusion.
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