Leadership at the Boundaries of Inclusion: Special Education School Principals' Perspectives on Inclusive Education Policies and Ethical Dilemmas

ERNAS S.

ANKARA UNIVERSITESI EGITIM BILIMLERI FAKULTESI OZEL EGITIM DERGISI-ANKARA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, cilt.27, sa.3, ss.597-614, 2026 (ESCI)

Özet

Introduction: Inclusive education, which has become a paradigm at the global level, has experienced a numerical expansion in T & uuml;rkiye; however, the gap between policy and practice confronts school administrators with the management of complex ethical dilemmas. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the policy-practice tension and to provide empirical data on managerial experiences that have been addressed in a limited manner in the literature, by examining the leadership, ethics, and organizational meaning dimensions of inclusive education from a holistic perspective. The primary purpose of the study is to reveal special education school principals' perceptions of inclusive education policies, how they make sense of these policies within their own contexts, and through which values and experiences they interpret the ethical dilemmas they encounter during the implementation process. Method: A phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research approaches, was adopted in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 special education school principals serving in the province of Ankara, representing diversity in terms of seniority and school type. The data were analyzed using phenomenological and thematic analysis techniques through the MAXQDA software. Findings: Three main themes emerged as a result of the analyses: (1) Bureaucratic and pedagogical dilemmas arising from the structural disconnect between policy and practice, (2) the transformative power of inclusive leadership along with the accompanying feelings of isolation and burnout, and (3) the reproduction of exclusion in spatial, symbolic, and legitimized forms. The findings indicate that despite being physically present in school, students experience "silent exclusion" and "epistemological access" problems. Discussion: The research findings demonstrate that the functioning of inclusive education in the field is shaped by ethical reasoning, contextual decision-making, and leadership interpretation beyond legislation. The tension between policy and practice positions school principals as moral agents striving to establish a balance between what is right and what is possible. Physical placement and enrollment rates are not sufficient indicators of inclusion; the actual determinant is students' meaningful access to knowledge, pedagogical processes, and social interaction. The findings reveal that exclusion is reproduced in more refined and multi-layered forms, and that inclusive leadership, when deprived of institutional support, transforms into a debilitating domain of responsibility despite its transformative nature. In conclusion, the sustainability of inclusive education depends on structural arrangements that strengthen organizational capacity, support ethical dilemma management, and institutionalize collective responsibility, rather than on individual sacrifices.