The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme has been in existence in Ireland, in various different iterations, since 1979. This article presents a critical policy analysis of two iterations of the scheme, operational between 1998 and 2014, using a hybrid analytical framework. It highlights the contextual factors influencing those iterations, presents an interdiscursive analysis of the key policy texts and highlights the scheme's many consequences using secondary data from two key Irish Government agencies. It is postulated that cyclical analytical frameworks are most effective at evaluating iterative special education policies, like the SNA scheme, because they allow sufficient scope to demonstrate that the consequence of one iteration ultimately becomes the context for the next. This article also shows that, while the provision of inclusive education for children with special educational needs in mainstream classes may have been an objective of the scheme, the extent to which that was realised is arguable.

中文翻译：

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包容还是昂贵的幻想的工具？爱尔兰特殊需求助理计划的关键政策分析

自1979年以来，特殊需求助手（SNA）计划在爱尔兰就已经存在，并且经历了不同的迭代。本文介绍了使用混合分析框架对该计划的两次迭代（在1998年至2014年之间实施）进行的关键政策分析。它突出显示了影响这些迭代的背景因素，提供了对关键政策文本的跨学科分析，并利用来自爱尔兰两个主要政府机构的辅助数据，突出了该计划的许多后果。据推测，周期性分析框架在评估迭代特殊教育政策（例如SNA计划）方面最有效，因为它们提供了足够的范围来证明一次迭代的结果最终成为下一次迭代的背景。本文还显示，