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What Are the Opportunities and Challenges of Inclusive Education?

Written by Colin Newton on August 27, 2021 . Posted in Blog

Inclusive education searches for ways to design schools, programs, classrooms, and lessons for all children to learn and participate. It includes finding several teaching methods to actively involve the pupils in developing mutual respect, relationships, and friends among them and between teachers and children in a classroom setup.

Children do not need to earn their participation in attending schools and classrooms. They do not have to be ready for education because inclusive education empowers schools to be creative in encouraging all kids to participate. Teachers must be creative in teaching to get every child involved. Inclusive education is a reflection of everyone’s expectation of children’s acceptance and appreciation throughout life.

Principles of Inclusive Education

• All kids can learn.
• They can attend age-appropriate classrooms in their community.
• They can receive a curriculum applicable to their requirements.
• They can gain suitable educational programs.
• They can join in extracurricular and co-curricular activities.
• They can benefit from the collaboration and cooperation of homes, schools, and communities.

Education in Regular Classrooms

Every child must receive education in a regular classroom, but it does not mean that they cannot leave it for some reason. For instance, one kid may undergo one-on-one assistance in a specific subject, and it may occur during regular class hours. Inclusive schools must consider how often a child can be out of the traditional classroom and why. They may not group children with some common characteristics in  inclusive classrooms  periodically during the school day.

Essential Features of Inclusive Education

According to  EssayMama , the success of inclusive education relies on the following practices and features:

• Unconditional acceptance of every child into regular classes and school life
• Providing support to classrooms, teachers, and children to ensure that every pupil participates in their classes and schools
• Recognizing all children by what they can do and not what they cannot do
• Parents and teachers have high expectations of all pupils.
• Development of educational goals according to every child’s abilities
• Designing classes and schools to help students learn and reach their fullest potential
• Possess strong leadership for inclusion from school administrators and principals
• Have knowledgeable teachers on several ways of teaching depending on the various strengths and abilities of children
• Collaboration among parents, teachers, and principals to ascertain methods to provide quality education in an inclusive environment

Opportunities of Inclusive Education

Over the years, inclusive education to all children can offer the following opportunities:

• All children can participate in their community and have a sense of belonging and better prepared for life.
• Children have different abilities; thus, they have varying motivations to learn in classes with their classmates.
• Successful attempts at inclusion can develop the child’s strengths and gifts.
• Children can work on their individual goals as they collaborate with their classmates.
• Inclusive education encourages the parents’ involvement in their children’s education and their school’s activities.
• Promote a culture of belonging and respect and offer a learning opportunity about acceptance of individual differences.
• Supports all students with opportunities in developing friendships that provide growth and role models.

Challenges of Inclusive Education

Any essential education innovations will encounter any challenge. Here are some of them:

Value Threats

Value differences can be varying relationships to the culture. Inclusive education faces value variances, and conflicts can emerge because of integrating disadvantaged children or kids from other races into the traditional school structure. 

Discords may also emerge because of the characteristics of inclusive education and can manifest as a result of user readiness. Diversity can arise from introducing inclusive education as an innovation because people may perceive it as a radical change. Educators and parents may hesitate to embrace it.

Power Barriers

Challenges can result from the distribution of power and changes in the authority structure, and significant educational reforms can cause an alteration of role relationships. Inclusive education can produce issues if teachers and their assistants or special needs educators cannot agree. Any imbalance in the distribution of responsibility and authority can harm the quality of inclusive education.

Practical Difficulties

Practical barriers can appear in the form of system, resources, and time constraints. They can slow down innovation and become an adverse concern for inclusive education because its design requires time to adapt to the educational system. Inclusive education demands overcoming resource barriers such as curriculum adaptation, teacher training, and teaching materials. The bureaucratic nature of the educational system can be a structural barrier too.

Psychological Issues

Some individuals can resist change even if it does not challenge their values and cause practical barriers. The resistance comes from a psychological obstacle, which can be problematic because it is abstract and demands professional treatment.

Final Thoughts

Inclusive education is an efficient way of giving all children a chance to be in a regular classroom to learn and develop their skills. It is a means to generate learning opportunities for students who have been excluded traditionally from the traditional educational system. Moreover, inclusive education values the unique contributions of pupils from all backgrounds to allow several groups to grow together. Progress is slow because inclusive education requires changes to the school system and at all levels of society.

About the Author

Thomas Jackson is a freelance content writer of a  uk essay writing service ,  EssayWritingLab , and  cheap dissertation writing services . He is also an active member of New York’s writing clubs. Thomas is a songwriter since his childhood and gathers inspiration from the live concerts he performs for his family and close friends.

Colin Newton

0115 955 6045, doug newton, [email protected].

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• Inclusive education

Every child has the right to quality education and learning.

There are an estimated 240 million children with disabilities worldwide. Like all children, children with disabilities have ambitions and dreams for their futures. Like all children, they need quality education to develop their skills and realize their full potential.

Yet, children with disabilities are often overlooked in policymaking, limiting their access to education and their ability to participate in social, economic and political life. Worldwide, these children are among the most likely to be out of school. They face persistent barriers to education stemming from discrimination, stigma and the routine failure of decision makers to incorporate disability in school services.

Disability is one of the most serious barriers to education across the globe.

Robbed of their right to learn, children with disabilities are often denied the chance to take part in their communities, the workforce and the decisions that most affect them.

Getting all children in school and learning

Inclusive education is the most effective way to give all children a fair chance to go to school, learn and develop the skills they need to thrive.

Inclusive education means all children in the same classrooms, in the same schools. It means real learning opportunities for groups who have traditionally been excluded – not only children with disabilities, but speakers of minority languages too.

Inclusive systems value the unique contributions students of all backgrounds bring to the classroom and allow diverse groups to grow side by side, to the benefit of all.

Inclusive education allows students of all backgrounds to learn and grow side by side, to the benefit of all.

But progress comes slowly. Inclusive systems require changes at all levels of society.

At the school level, teachers must be trained, buildings must be refurbished and students must receive accessible learning materials. At the community level, stigma and discrimination must be tackled and individuals need to be educated on the benefit of inclusive education. At the national level, Governments must align laws and policies with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , and regularly collect and analyse data to ensure children are reached with effective services.

UNICEF’s work to promote inclusive education

To close the education gap for children with disabilities, UNICEF supports government efforts to foster and monitor inclusive education systems. Our work focuses on four key areas:

• Advocacy : UNICEF promotes inclusive education in discussions, high-level events and other forms of outreach geared towards policymakers and the general public.
• Awareness-raising : UNICEF shines a spotlight on the needs of children with disabilities by conducting research and hosting roundtables, workshops and other events for government partners.
• Capacity-building : UNICEF builds the capacity of education systems in partner countries by training teachers, administrators and communities, and providing technical assistance to Governments.
• Implementation support : UNICEF assists with monitoring and evaluation in partner countries to close the implementation gap between policy and practice.

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The boy who changed his community in Serbia

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I want to change how society sees people with disabilities

"When I came to school, I was determined to show everybody I could make it."

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Two-thirds of refugee children in Armenia enrolled in school, efforts must now focus on expanding access to education for all children

Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All

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Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Inclusive Education: Including Children with Disabilities in Quality Learning

This document provides guidance on what Governments can do to create inclusive education systems.

Towards Inclusive Education: The Impact of Disability on School Attendance in Developing Countries

Using cross-nationally comparable and nationally representative data from 18 surveys in 15 countries, this paper investigates how disability affects school attendance.

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Introduction

The commitment of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) to ensure ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’ and promote ‘lifelong learning for all’ is part of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledge to leave no one behind. The agenda promises a ‘just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive world in which the needs of the most disadvantaged are met’.

Social, economic and cultural factors may complement or run counter to the achievement of equity and inclusion in education. Education offers a key entry point for inclusive societies if it sees learner diversity not as a problem but as a challenge: to identify individual talent in all shapes and forms and create conditions for it to flourish. Unfortunately, disadvantaged groups are kept out or pushed out of education systems through more or less subtle decisions leading to exclusion from curricula, irrelevant learning objectives, stereotyping in textbooks, discrimination in resource allocation and assessments, tolerance of violence and neglect of needs.

Contextual factors, such as politics, resources and culture, can make the inclusion challenge appear to vary across countries or groups. In reality, the challenge is the same, regardless of context. Education systems need to treat every learner with dignity in order to overcome barriers, raise attainment and improve learning. Systems need to stop labelling learners, a practice adopted on the pretext of easing the planning and delivery of education responses. Inclusion cannot be achieved one group at a time (Figure 1). Learners have multiple, intersecting identities. Moreover, no one characteristic is associated with any predetermined ability to learn.

FIGURE 1: The one thing we all have in common is our differences

Inclusion in education is first and foremost a process.

Inclusion is for all. Inclusive education is commonly associated with the needs of people with disabilities and the relationship between special and mainstream education. Since 1990, the struggle of people with disabilities has shaped the global perspective on inclusion in education, leading to recognition of the right to inclusive education in Article 24 of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). However, as General Comment No. 4 on the article recognized in 2016, inclusion is broader in scope. The same mechanisms exclude not only people with disabilities but also others on account of gender, age, location, poverty, disability, ethnicity, indigeneity, language, religion, migration or displacement status, sexual orientation or gender identity expression, incarceration, beliefs and attitudes. It is the system and context that do not take diversity and multiplicity of needs into account, as the Covid-19 pandemic has also laid bare. It is society and culture that determine rules, define normality and perceive difference as deviance. The concept of barriers to participation and learning should replace the concept of special needs.

Inclusion is a process. Inclusive education is a process contributing to achievement of the goal of social inclusion. Defining equitable education requires a distinction between ‘equality’ and ‘equity’. Equality is a state of affairs (what): a result that can be observed in inputs, outputs or outcomes. Equity is a process (how): actions aimed at ensuring equality. Defining inclusive education is more complicated because process and result are conflated. This Report argues for thinking of inclusion as a process: actions that embrace diversity and build a sense of belonging, rooted in the belief that every person has value and potential, and should be respected, regardless of their background, ability or identity. Yet inclusion is also a state of affairs, a result, which the CRPD and General Comment No. 4 stopped short of defining with precision, likely because of differing views of what the result should be.

INCLUSION IN EDUCATION AS RESULT: START WITH EDUCATION FOR ALL

Poverty and inequality are major constraints. Despite progress in reducing extreme poverty, especially in Asia, it affects 1 in 10 adults and 2 in 10 children – 5 in 10 in sub-Saharan Africa. Income inequality is growing in parts of the world or, if falling, remains unacceptably high among and within countries. Key human development outcomes are also unequally distributed. In 30 low- and middle-income countries, 41% of children under age 5 from the poorest 20% of households were malnourished, more than twice the rate of those from the richest 20%, severely compromising their opportunity to benefit from education.

Progress in education participation is stagnating. An estimated 258 million children, adolescents and youth, or 17% of the total, are not in school (Figure 2). Disparities by wealth in attendance rates are large: Among 65 low-and middle-income countries, the average gap in attendance rates between the poorest and the richest 20% of households was 9 percentage points for primary school-age children, 13 for lower secondary school-age adolescents and 27 for upper secondary school-age youth. As the poorest are more likely to repeat and leave school early, wealth gaps are even higher in completion rates: 30 percentage points for primary, 45 for lower secondary and 40 for upper secondary school completion.

Poverty affects attendance, completion and learning opportunities. In all regions except Europe and Northern America, for every 100 adolescents from the richest 20% of households, 87 from the poorest 20% attended lower secondary school and 37 completed it. Of the latter, for every 100 adolescents from the richest 20% of households, about 50 achieved minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics (Figure 3). Often, disadvantages intersect. Those most likely to be excluded from education are also disadvantaged due to language, location, gender and ethnicity. In at least 20 countries with data, hardly any poor rural young woman completed upper secondary school.

FIGURE 2: A quarter of a billion children, adolescents and youth are not in school

FIGURE 3: There are large wealth disparities in attendance, completion and learning

THE RESULTS OF INCLUSION IN EDUCATION MAY BE ELUSIVE, BUT ARE REAL, NOT ILLUSIVE

While universal access to education is a prerequisite for inclusion, there is less consensus on what else it means to achieve inclusion in education for learners with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups at risk of exclusion.

Inclusion for students with disabilities means more than placement. The CRPD focus on school placement marked a break not just with the historical tendency to exclude children with disabilities from education or to segregate them in special schools but also with the practice of putting them in separate classes for much or most of the time. Inclusion, however, involves many more changes in school support and ethos. The CRPD did not argue special schools violated the convention, but recent reports by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities increasingly point in that direction. The CRPD gave governments a free hand in the form of inclusive education, implicitly recognizing the obstacles to full inclusion. While exclusionary practices by many governments that contravene their CRPD commitments should be exposed, the limits to how flexible mainstream schools and education systems can be should also be acknowledged.

Inclusive education serves multiple objectives. There is a potential tension between the desirable goals of maximizing interaction with others (all children under the same roof and fulfilling learning potential (wherever students learn best. Other considerations include the speed with which systems can move towards the ideal and what happens during transition, and the trade-off between early needs identification and the risk of labelling and stigmatization.

Pursuing different objectives simultaneously can be complementary or conflicting. Policymakers, legislators and educators confront delicate and context-specific questions related to inclusion. They need to be aware of opposition by those invested in preserving segregated delivery but also of the potential unsustainability of rapid change, which can harm the welfare of those it is meant to serve. Including children with disabilities in mainstream schools that are not prepared, supported or accountable for achieving inclusion can intensify experiences of exclusion and provoke backlash against making schools and systems more inclusive.

There can be downsides to full inclusion. In some contexts, inclusion may inadvertently intensify pressure to conform. Group identities, practices, languages and beliefs may be devalued, jeopardized or eradicated, undercutting a sense of belonging. The right for a group to preserve its culture and the right to self-determination and self-representation are increasingly recognized. Inclusion may be resisted out of prejudice but also out of recognition that identity may be maintained and empowerment achieved only if a minority is a majority in a given area. Rather than achieve positive social engagement, in some circumstances inclusion policies may exacerbate social exclusion. Exposure to the majority may reinforce dominant prejudices, intensifying minority disadvantage. Targeting assistance can also lead to stigmatization, labelling or unwelcome forms of inclusion.

Resolving dilemmas requires meaningful participation. Inclusive education should be based on dialogue, participation and openness. While policymakers and educators should not compromise, discount or divert from the long-term ideal of inclusion, they should not override the needs and preferences of those affected. Fundamental human rights and principles provide moral and political direction for education decisions, yet fulfilling the inclusive ideal is not trivial. Delivering sufficient differentiated and individualized support requires perseverance, resilience and a long-term perspective. Moving away from education system design that suits some children and obliges others to adapt cannot easily happen by decree. Prevailing attitudes and mindsets must be challenged. Inclusive education may prove intractable, even with the best will and highest commitment. Some, therefore, argue for limiting the ambition of inclusive education, but the only way forward is to acknowledge the barriers and dismantle them.

Inclusion brings benefits. Careful planning and provision of inclusive education can deliver improvement in academic achievement, social and emotional development, self-esteem and peer acceptance. Including diverse students in mainstream classrooms and schools can prevent stigma, stereotyping, discrimination and alienation. There are also potential efficiency savings from eliminating parallel education structures and using resources more effectively in a single inclusive mainstream system. However, economic justification for inclusive education, while valuable for planning, is not sufficient. Few systems come close enough to the ideal to allow estimation of the full cost, and benefits are hard to quantify, as they extend over generations.

Inclusion is a moral imperative. Debating the benefits of inclusive education is akin to debating the benefits of human rights. Inclusion is a prerequisite for sustainable societies. It is a prerequisite for education in, and for, a democracy based on fairness, justice and equity. It provides a systematic framework for removing barriers according to the principle ‘every learner matters and matters equally’. It also counteracts education system tendencies that allow exceptions and exclusions, as when schools are evaluated along a single dimension and resource allocation is linked to their performance.

Inclusion improves learning for all students. In recent years, a learning crisis narrative has drawn attention to the majority of school-age children in low- and middle-income countries not achieving minimum proficiency in basic skills. However, this narrative may overlook dysfunctional features of education systems in the countries furthest behind, such as exclusion, elitism and inequity. It is not by accident that SDG 4 explicitly exhorts countries to ensure inclusive education. Mechanical solutions that do not address the deeper barriers of exclusion can only go so far towards improving learning outcomes. Inclusion must be the foundation of approaches to teaching and learning.

The 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report asks questions related to key policy solutions, obstacles to implementation, coordination mechanisms, financing channels and monitoring of inclusive education. To the extent possible, it examines these questions in view of change over time. However, an area as complex as inclusion has not yet been well documented on a global scale. This Report collects information on how each country, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, addresses the challenge of inclusion in education. The information is available on a new website, PEER , which countries can use to share experiences and learn from one another, especially at the regional level, where contexts are similar. The profiles can serve as a baseline to review qualitative progress to 2030.

The Report recognizes the different contexts and challenges facing countries in providing inclusive education; the various groups at risk of being excluded from education and the barriers individual learners face, especially when characteristics intersect; and the fact that exclusion can be physical, social (in interpersonal and group relations, psychological and systemic. It addresses these challenges through seven elements in respective chapters, while a short section highlights how these challenges have played out in the context of Covid-19.

Laws and policies

Binding legal instruments and non-binding declarations express international aspirations for inclusion. The 1960 UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education and the 1990 World Declaration on Education for All, adopted in Jomtien, Thailand, called on countries to take measures to ensure ‘equality of treatment in education’ and no ‘discrimination in access to learning opportunities’ for ‘underserved groups’. The 1994 Statement and Framework for Action adopted in Salamanca, Spain, put forward the principle that all children should be at ‘the school that would be attended if the child did not have a disability’, which was endorsed as a right in 2006. These texts have influenced the national laws and policies on which progress towards inclusion hinges.

National definitions of inclusive education tend to embrace a broader scope. Analysis for this Report shows that 68% of countries define inclusive education in laws, policies, plans or strategies. Definitions that cover all marginalized groups are found in 57% of countries. In 17% of countries, the definition of inclusive education covers exclusively people with disabilities or special needs. ( PEER ).

Laws tend to target specific groups at risk of exclusion in education. The broad vision of including all learners in education is largely absent from national laws. Only 10% of countries reflected comprehensive provisions for all learners in their general or inclusive education laws. More commonly, legislation originating in education ministries concerns specific groups. Of all countries, 79% had laws referring to education for people with disabilities, 60% for linguistic minorities, 50% for gender equality and 49% for ethnic and indigenous groups. ( PEER ).

Policies tend to have a broader vision of inclusion in education. About 17% of countries have policies containing comprehensive provisions for all learners. The tendency is much stronger in less binding texts, with 75% of national education plans and strategies declaring an intention to include all disadvantaged groups. Some 67% of countries have policies on inclusion of learners with disabilities, with responsibility for these policies almost equally split between education ministries and other ministries. ( PEER )

Laws and policies differ on whether students with disabilities should be in mainstream schools. Laws in 25% of countries provide for education in separate settings, with shares exceeding 40% in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean. About 10% of countries mandate integration and 17% inclusion, the remainder opting for combinations of segregation and mainstreaming. Policies have shifted closer to inclusion: 5% of countries have policy provisions for education in separate settings, while 12% opt for integration and 38% for inclusion. Despite the good intentions enshrined in laws and policies, governments often do not ensure implementation.

Policies need to be consistent and coherent across ages and education levels. Access to early childhood care and education is highly inequitable, conditioned by location and socio-economic status. Quality, especially interactions, integration, and child-centredness based on play, also determines inclusion. Early identification of children’s needs is crucial to designing the right responses, but labels of difference in the name of inclusion can misfire. Disproportionately assigning some marginalized groups to special needs categories can indicate discriminatory procedures, as successful legal challenges over Roma students’ right to education demonstrate.

Preventing early school leaving requires policies on multiple fronts. Education systems face a dilemma. Grade retention appears to increase dropout, but automatic promotion requires systematic approaches to remedial support, which many countries proclaim but fail to implement. Laws and policies may not be consistent with inclusion, e.g. in countries with low child labour or marriage age thresholds. Bangladesh is among the few countries to invest extensively in second-chance programmes, which are indispensable for achieving SDG 4.

Governments are striving to make post-compulsory and adult education policies more inclusive. Technical and vocational education can facilitate labour market inclusion of vulnerable groups, notably young women and people with disabilities. Unlocking its potential requires making learning environments safer and accessible, as in Malawi. Inclusion-oriented tertiary education interventions tend to focus on encouraging access for disadvantaged groups through quotas or affordability measures. Yet only 11% of 71 countries had comprehensive equity strategies; another 11% elaborated approaches only for particular groups. Digital inclusion, especially of the elderly, is a major challenge for countries increasingly dependent on information and communication technology (ICT).

Responses to the Covid-19 crisis, which affected 1.6 billion learners, have not paid sufficient attention to including all learners. While 55% of low-income countries opted for online distance learning in primary and secondary education, only 12% of households in least developed countries have internet access at home. Even low-technology approaches cannot ensure learning continuity. Among the poorest 20% of households, just 7% owned a radio in Ethiopia and none owned a television. Overall, about 40% of low- and lower-middle-income countries have not supported learners at risk of exclusion. In France, up to 8% of students had lost contact with teachers after three weeks of lockdown.

Data on and for inclusion in education are essential. Data on inclusion can highlight gaps in education opportunities and outcomes among learner groups, identifying those at risk of being left behind and the severity of the barriers they face. Using such information, governments can develop policies for inclusion and collect further data on implementation and on less easily observed qualitative outcomes.

Formulating appropriate questions on characteristics associated with vulnerability can be sensitive. Data on education disparity at the population level, collected through censuses and surveys, raise education ministries’ awareness of disparity. However, depending on their formulation, questions on characteristics such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity expression can touch on sensitive personal identities, be intrusive and trigger persecution fears.

The formulation of questions on disability has improved. Agreeing to a valid measure of disability has been a long process . The UN Statistical Commission’s Washington Group on Disability Statistics proposed a short set of questions for censuses or surveys in 2006, covering critical functional domains and activities for adults. A child-specific module was then developed with UNICEF. The questions bring disability statistics in line with the social model of disability and resolve serious comparability issues. Their rate of adoption is only slowly picking up.

The evidence that emerges on disability is of higher quality but still patchy. Analysis of 14 countries taking part in the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) in 2017–19 and using the wider child-specific module showed a disability prevalence of 12%, ranging from 6% to 24%, as a result of high anxiety and depression rates. Across these countries, children, adolescents and youth with disabilities accounted for 15% of the out-of-school population. Relative to their peers of primary, lower secondary and upper secondary school age, those with a disability were more likely to be out of school by 1, 4 and 6 percentage points, respectively, and those with a sensory, physical or intellectual disability by 4, 7 and 11 percentage points.

Some school surveys provide deeper insights into inclusion. In the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), one in five 15-year-old students reported feeling like an outsider at school, but the share exceeded 30% in Brunei Darussalam, the Dominican Republic and the United States. In all participating education systems, students of lower socio-economic status were less likely to feel a sense of belonging. Administrative data can be leveraged to collect qualitative evidence on inclusion. New Zealand systematically monitors soft indicators at the national level, including on whether students feel cared for, safe and secure, and on their ability to establish and maintain positive relationships, respect others’ needs and show empathy. Almost half of low- and middle-income countries collect no administrative data on students with disabilities.

Data show where segregation is still taking place. In Brazil, a policy change increased the share of students with disabilities in mainstream schools from 23% in 2003 to 81% in 2015. In Asia and the Pacific, almost 80% of children with disabilities attended mainstream schools, from 3% in Kyrgyzstan to 100% in Timor-Leste and Thailand. Scattered data record schools catering to specific groups, such as girls, linguistic minorities and religious communities. Their contribution to inclusion is ambiguous: Indigenous schools, for instance, can provide an environment where traditions, cultures and experiences are respected, but they can also perpetuate marginality. School surveys such as PISA show high levels of socio-economic segregation in countries including Chile and Mexico, where half of all students would require school reassignment to achieve a uniform socio-economic mix. This type of school segregation barely changed over 2000–15.

Identification of special education needs can be contentious. Identification can inform teachers about student needs so they can target support and accommodation. Yet children could be reduced to labels by peers, teachers and administrators, which can prompt stereotyped behaviours towards labelled students and encourage a medical approach. Portugal recently legislated a non-categorical approach to determining special needs. Low expectations triggered by a label, such as having learning difficulties, can become self-fulfilling. In Europe, the share of students identified with special education needs ranged from 1% in Sweden to 20% in Scotland. Learning disability was the largest category of special needs in the United States but was unknown in Japan. Such variation is mainly explained by differences in how countries construct this category of education: Institution, funding and training requirements vary, as do policy implications.

Governance and finance

Ensuring inclusive education is not the sole responsibility of education policy actors. Integrating services can improve the way children’s needs are considered, as well as services’ quality and cost-effectiveness. Integration can be achieved when one service provider acts as a referral point for access to another. A mapping of inclusive education provision in 18 European countries, mostly with reference to students with disabilities, showed education ministries responsible for teachers, school administration and learning materials; health ministries for screening, assessment and rehabilitation services; and social protection ministries for financial aid.

Sharing responsibility does not guarantee horizontal collaboration, cooperation and coordination. Deep-rooted norms, traditions and bureaucratic working cultures hinder smooth transition away from siloed forms of service delivery. Insufficient resources may also be a factor: In Kenya, one-third of county-level Educational Assessment Resource Centres, set up to expand access to education for children with disabilities, had one officer instead of the multidisciplinary teams envisaged. Clearly defined, measurable standards outlining responsibilities are needed. Rwanda developed standards enabling inspectors to assess classroom inclusivity. In Jordan, various actors used separate standards for licensing and accrediting special education centres; the new 10-year strategy will address this issue.

Vertical integration among government tiers and support to local government are needed. Central governments must fund commitments to local governments fully and develop their capacity. A Republic of Moldova reform to move children out of mostly state boarding schools stumbled because savings were not transferred to the local government institutions and schools absorbing the children. In Nepal, a midterm evaluation of the school sector programme and the first inclusive education workshop showed that, while some central government posts were shifted as part of decentralization, local government capacity to support education service delivery was weak.

Three funding levers are important for equity and inclusion in education. First, governments may or may not compensate for relative disadvantage in allocating resources to local authorities or schools through capitation grants. Argentina’s federal government allocates block grants to provincial governments, taking rural and out-of-school populations into account. Provinces co-finance education from their revenue, whose levels vary greatly, contributing to inequality. Second, education financing policies and programmes may target students and their families in the form of cash (e.g. scholarships) and exemptions from payment (e.g. fees). About one in four countries have affirmative action programmes for access to tertiary education. Third, non-education-specific financing policies and programmes can have a large impact on education. Over the long term, conditional cash transfers in Latin America increased education attainment by between 0.5 and 1.5 years.

Financing disability-inclusive education requires additional focus. A twin-track approach to financing is recommended, complementing general mechanisms with targeted programmes. Policymakers need to define standards for services to be delivered and the costs they will cover. They need to address the challenge of expanding costs as special needs identification rates increase, and design ways to prioritize, finance and deliver targeted services for a wide range of needs. They also need to define results in a way that maintains pressure on local authorities and schools to avoid further earmarking services for children with diagnosed special needs and further segregating settings at the expense of other groups or general financing needs. Finland has been moving in this direction.

Even richer countries lack information on financing education for students with disabilities. A project mapping European countries’ financing of inclusive education found that only 5 in 18 had relevant information. There is no ideal funding mechanism, since countries vary in history, understanding of inclusive education and levels of decentralization. A few countries are moving away from multiple weights (e.g. by type of impairment), which may inflate the number of students identified with special needs, to a simple funding formula for mainstream schools. Many promote networks to share resources, facilities and capacity development opportunities.

Poorer countries often struggle to finance the shift from special to inclusive education. Some countries have increased their budgets to improve inclusion of students with disabilities. The 2018/19 Mauritius budget quadrupled the annual per capita grant for teaching aids, utilities, furniture and equipment for students with special needs.

Curricula, textbooks and assessments

Curriculum choices can promote or obstruct an inclusive and democratic society. Curricula need to reassure all groups at risk of exclusion that they are fundamental to the education project, whether in terms of content or implementation. Using different curricula of differing standards for some groups hinders inclusion and creates stigma. Yet many countries still teach students with disabilities a special curriculum, offer refugees only the curriculum of their home country to encourage repatriation, and tend to push lower achievers onto slower education tracks. Challenges arise in several contexts: internally displaced populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina; gender issues in Peru; linguistic minorities in Thailand; Burundian and Congolese refugees in the United Republic of Tanzania; indigenous peoples in Canada. In Europe, 23 in 49 countries did not address sexual orientation and gender identity expression explicitly.

Inclusive curricula need to be relevant, flexible and responsive to needs. Evidence from citizen-led assessments in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa highlighted large gaps between curriculum objectives and learning outcomes. When curricula cater to more privileged students and certain types of knowledge, implementation inequality between rural and urban areas arises, as a curriculum study of primary mathematics in Uganda showed. Learning in the mother tongue is vital, especially in primary school, to avoid knowledge gaps and increase the speed of learning and comprehension. In India’s Odisha state, multilingual education covered about 1,500 primary schools and 21 tribal languages of instruction. Just 41 countries worldwide recognize sign language as an official language, of which 21 are in the European Union. In Australia, 19% of students receive adjustments to the curriculum. Curricula should not lead to dead ends in education but offer pathways for continuous education opportunities.

Textbooks can perpetuate stereotypes. Representation of ethnic, linguistic, religious and indigenous minorities in textbooks depends largely on historical and national context. Factors influencing countries’ treatment of minorities include the presence of indigenous populations; the demographic, political or economic dominance of one or more ethnic groups; the history of segregation or conflict; the conceptualization of nationhood; and the role of immigration. Textbooks may acknowledge minority groups in ways that mitigate or exacerbate the degree to which they are perceived, or perceive themselves, as ‘other’. Inappropriate images and descriptions that associate certain characteristics with particular population groups can make students with non-dominant backgrounds feel misrepresented, misunderstood, frustrated and alienated. In many countries, females are often under-represented and stereotyped. The share of females in secondary school English language textbook text and images was 44% in Indonesia, 37% in Bangladesh and 24% in Punjab province, Pakistan. Women were represented in less prestigious occupations and as introverted.

Good-quality assessments are a fundamental part of an inclusive education system. Assessments are often organized unduly narrowly, determining admission to certain schools or placement in separate school tracks, and sending conflicting signals about government commitment to inclusion. Large-scale, cross-national summative assessments, for instance, tend to exclude students with disabilities or learning difficulties. Assessment should focus on students’ tasks: how they tackle them, which ones prove difficult and how some aspects can be adapted to enable success. A shift in emphasis from high-stake summative assessments at the end of the education cycle to low-stake formative assessments over the education trajectory underpins efforts to make assessment fit for the purpose of inclusive education. Test accommodations are essential, but their validity has been questioned in that they appear to fit students to a model. The emphasis should instead be on how the assessment can support students with impairments in demonstration of their learning. In seven sub-Saharan African countries, no teacher had minimum knowledge in student assessment.

Various factors need to be aligned for inclusive curricular, textbook and assessment reforms. Capacity needs to be developed so stakeholders can work collaboratively and think strategically. Partnerships need to be in place to enable all parties to own the process and work towards the same goals. Successful attempts to make curricula, textbooks and assessments inclusive entail participatory processes during design, development and implementation.

Teachers and education support personnel

In inclusive education, all teachers should be prepared to teach all students. Inclusion cannot be realized unless teachers are agents of change, with values, knowledge and attitudes that permit every student to succeed. Teachers’ attitudes often mix commitment to the principle of inclusion with doubts about their preparedness and how ready the education system is to support them. Teachers may not be immune to social biases and stereotypes. Inclusive teaching requires teachers to be open to diversity and aware that all students learn by connecting classroom with life experiences. While many teacher education and professional learning opportunities are designed accordingly, entrenched views of some students as deficient, unable to learn or incapable mean teachers may struggle to see that each student’s learning capacity is open-ended.

Lack of preparedness for inclusive teaching may result from gaps in pedagogical knowledge. Some 25% of teachers in the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey reported a high need for professional development in teaching students with special needs. Across 10 francophone sub-Saharan African countries, 8% of grade 2 and 6 teachers had received in-service training in inclusive education. Overcoming the legacy of preparing different types of teachers for different types of students in separate settings is important. To be of good quality, teacher education must cover multiple aspects of inclusive teaching for all learners, from instructional techniques and classroom management to multi-professional teams and learning assessment methods, and should include follow-up support to help teachers integrate new skills into classroom practice. In Canada’s New Brunswick province, a comprehensive inclusive education policy introduced training opportunities for teachers to support students with autism spectrum disorders.

Teachers need appropriate working conditions and support to adapt teaching to student needs. In Cambodia, teachers questioned the feasibility of applying child-centred pedagogy in a context of overcrowded classrooms, scarce teaching resources and overambitious curricula. Teaching to standardized content requirements of a learning assessment can make it more difficult for teachers to adapt their practice. Cooperation among teachers in different schools can support them in addressing the challenges of diversity, especially in systems transitioning from segregation to inclusion. Sometimes such collaboration is absent even among teachers at the same school. In Sri Lanka, few teachers in mainstream classes collaborated with peers in special needs units.

A rise in support personnel accompanied the mainstreaming of students with special needs. Yet, globally, provision is lacking. Respondents to a survey of teacher unions reported that support personnel were largely absent or not available in at least 15% of countries. Classroom learning or teaching assistants can be particularly helpful. However, while their role is to supplement teachers’ work, they are often put in positions that demand much more. Increased professional expectations, accompanied by often low levels of professional development, can lead to lower-quality learning, interference with peer interaction, decreased access to competent instruction, and stigmatization. In Australia, access of students with disabilities to qualified teachers was partly impeded by the system’s overdependence on unqualified support personnel.

Teacher diversity often lags behind population diversity. This is sometimes the result of structural problems preventing members of marginalized groups from acquiring qualifications, teaching in schools once they are qualified and remaining in the profession. Systems should recognize that these teachers can bolster inclusion by offering unique insights and serving as role models to all students. In India, the share of teachers from scheduled castes, which constitute 16% of the country’s population, increased from 9% to 13% between 2005 and 2013.

Inclusion in education requires inclusive schools. School ethos – the explicit and implicit values and beliefs, as well as the interpersonal relationships, that define a school’s atmosphere – has been linked to students’ social and emotional development and well-being. The share of students in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries who felt they ‘belonged’ in school fell from 82% in 2003 to 73% in 2015 due to increasing shares of students with immigrant backgrounds and declining levels of a sense of belonging among natives.

Head teachers can foster a shared vision of inclusion. They can guide inclusive pedagogy and plan professional development activities. A cross-country study of teachers of special needs students in mainstream schools found that those who received more instructional leadership reported lower professional development needs. While head teachers’ tasks are increasingly complex, nearly one-fifth (rising to half in Croatia) had no instructional leadership training. Across 47 education systems, 15% of head teachers (rising to more than 60% in Viet Nam) reported a high need for professional development in promoting equity and diversity.

School bullying and violence cause exclusion. One-third of 11- to 15-year-olds have been bullied in school. Those perceived as differing from social norms or ideals are the most likely to be victimized, including sexual, ethnic and religious minorities, the poor and those with special needs. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex students in New Zealand were three times as likely to be bullied. In Uganda, 84% of children with disabilities versus 53% of those without experienced violence by peers or staff. Classroom management practices, guidance services and policies should identify staff responsibilities and actions to prevent and address bullying and violence. Punitive approaches should not displace student support and cultivation of a respectful atmosphere.

Schools must be safe and accessible. Transit to school, building design and sanitation facilities often violate accessibility, acceptability and adaptability principles. More than one-quarter of girls in 11 African, Asian and Latin American countries reported never or seldom feeling safe on the way to or from school. No schools in Burundi, Niger and Samoa had ‘adapted infrastructure and materials for students with disabilities’. In Slovakia, 15% of primary and 21% of lower secondary schools met such standards. Reliable comparable evidence remains elusive because countries’ standards vary and schools do not meet all elements of a standard; in addition, monitoring capacity is weak and data are not independently verified.

Accessible infrastructure often does not support all. The CRPD called for universal design to increase functionality and accommodate everyone’s needs, regardless of age, size or ability. Incorporating full-access facilities from the outset increases cost by 1%, compared with 5% or more after completion. Aid programmes helped disseminate universal design principles. Indonesian schools built with Australian support included accessible toilets, handrails and ramps; the government adopted similar measures for all new schools.

Assistive technology can determine participation or marginalization. Assistive devices refer to input technology (adapted keyboards and computer input controls, speech input, dictation software) and output technology (screen readers and magnifiers, three-dimensional printers, Braille note-takers). Alternative and augmentative communication systems replace speech. Assistive listening systems improve sound clarity and reduce background noise. Such technology improves graduation rates, self-esteem and optimism, but is often unavailable due to lack of resources or not used effectively due to lack of teacher education.

Students, parents and communities

Take marginalized students’ experiences into account. Documenting disadvantaged students’ views without singling them out is difficult. Their inclusion preferences are shown to depend on their vulnerability, type of school attended, experience at a different type of school, and the level and discreetness of specialized support. Vulnerable students in mainstream schools may appreciate separate settings for the sake of increased attention or reduced noise. Pairing students with peers with disabilities can increase acceptance and empathy, although it does not guarantee inclusion outside school.

Majority populations tend to stereotype minority and marginalized students. Negative attitudes lead to less acceptance, isolation and bullying. Syrian refugees in Turkey felt negative stereotypes led to depression, stigmatization and alienation from school. Stereotypes can lower students’ expectations and self-esteem. In Switzerland, girls internalized the view that they are less suited than boys for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which discouraged them from pursuing degrees in these fields. Teachers can fight but also perpetuate discrimination in education. Mathematics teachers in São Paulo, Brazil, were more likely to pass white students than their equally proficient and well-behaved black classmates. Teachers in China had less favourable perceptions of rural migrant students than of their urban peers.

Parents drive but also resist inclusive education. Parents may hold discriminatory beliefs about gender, disability, ethnicity, race or religion. Some 15% in Germany and 59% in Hong Kong, China, feared that children with disabilities disturbed others’ learning. Given choice, parents wish to send their vulnerable children to schools that ensure their well-being. They need to trust mainstream schools to respond to their needs. As school becomes more demanding with age, parents of children with autism spectrum disorders may have to look for schools that better meet their needs. In Australia’s Queensland state, 37% of students in special schools had moved from mainstream schools.

Parental school choice affects inclusion and segregation. Families with choice may avoid disadvantaged local schools. In Danish cities, a seven percentage point increase in the share of migrant students was associated with a one percentage point increase in the share of natives attending private school. In Lebanon, the majority of parents favoured private schools along sectarian lines. In Malaysia, private school streams organized by ethnicity and differentiated by quality contributed to stratification, despite government measures to desegregate schools. The potential of distance and online mainstream education for inclusion notwithstanding, parental preference for self-segregation through homeschooling tests the limits of inclusive education.

Parents of children with disabilities often find themselves in a distressing situation. Parents need support in early identification and management of their children’s sleep, behaviour, nursing, comfort and care. Early intervention programmes can help them grow confident, use other support services and enrol children in mainstream schools. Mutual support programmes can provide solidarity, confidence and information. Parents with disabilities are more likely to be poor, less educated and face barriers coming to school or working with teachers. In Viet Nam, children of parents with disabilities had 16% lower attendance rates.

Civil society has been advocate and watchdog for the right to inclusive education. Organizations for people with disabilities, disabled people’s organizations, grassroots parental associations and international non-government organizations (NGOs) active in development and education monitor progress on government commitments, campaign for fulfilment of rights and defend against violations of the right to inclusive education. In Armenia, an NGO campaign resulted in a legal and budget framework for rolling out inclusive education nationally by 2025.

Civil society groups provide education services on government contract or their own initiative. These services may support groups governments do not reach (e.g. street children) or be alternatives to government services. The Ghana Inclusive Education Policy calls on NGOs to mobilize resources, advocate for increased funding, contribute to infrastructure development and engage in monitoring and evaluation. The Afghanistan government supports community-based education, which relies on local people. Yet NGO schools set up for specific groups may promote segregation rather than inclusion in education. They should align with policy and not replicate services or compete for limited funds.

Education in the other SDGs

The goals of gender equality, climate change and partnerships have large and unrealized synergies with education. A review of effective means of combating climate change ranked girls’ and women’s education and family planning sixth and seventh out of 80 solutions. The review estimated that filling the GEM Report-estimated financing gap of US$39 billion a year could yield a reduction of 51 gigatons of emissions by 2050, an ‘incalculable’ return on investment. Indigenous peoples and local communities manage at least 17% of the total carbon stored in forest lands in 52 tropical and subtropical countries, making protecting their knowledge vital. As of 2017, 102 of 195 UNESCO member states had a designated education focal point for Action for Climate Empowerment to support provision of climate change mitigation education.

While gender is a cross-cutting priority in all multi-stakeholder funding partnerships, connections between education and climate change are weaker. There has been no clear targeting from global climate finance in 2015–16 for scaling up education systems and girls’ education, for behavioural changes in food waste and diet, or for indigenous approaches to land use and management.

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Disability inclusive education and learning

Inscribed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) , education is a basic right. A range of declarations and conventions highlight the importance of education for people with disabilities: the Salamanca Statement on education and special needs in 1994, as well as article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) adopted in 2006. The importance of education for all is also included in the Convention against Discrimination in Education 1960. In 2015, the Incheon Declaration recalled the importance of inclusive education for all. Targets 4.5 and 4.a call for access to education and the construction of adapted facilities for children with disabilities (Education 2030, 2016).

WHAT WE KNOW

There are few data on school enrolment figures for children with disabilities. However, we do know that there are between 93 and 150 million children living with a disability and, according to the Learning Generation report, in low- and middle-income countries as many as 33 million children with disabilities are out of school (Grant Lewis, 2019). Moreover, children with disabilities are less likely to complete primary, secondary and further education compared to children without disabilities.

In all countries of the world, people with disabilities have lower literacy rates than people without disabilities (Singal, 2015; UIS, 2018; United Nations, 2018). There is also a difference based on the nature of the disability i.e. illiteracy is higher in children with visual impairments, multiple or mental disorders compared to children with motor disabilities (Singal, 2015).

When they do attend school, children with disabilities score lower in mathematics and reading tests, as shown in the PASEC learning assessments (World Bank, 2019; Wodon et al, 2018). Girls with disabilities are penalized even further due to their gender (UIS, 2018). Generally, disability tends to compound social inequalities (e.g. poverty or place of residence). That said, in Pakistan, the learning gap between children with disabilities and children without disabilities enrolled in school was lower than the gap between these two out-of-school groups (Rose et al., 2018: 9). Moreover, studies in the United States of America have shown that students with disabilities achieve better academic outcomes and social integration when studying in a mainstream environment than students studying in segregated or specialized classes (Alquraini and Gut, 2012).

TOWARD A MAINSTREAM SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Inclusive education means including students with disabilities in a mainstream school environment. In many countries today, children with disabilities attend ordinary schools but follow a specific curriculum. Moving toward a more inclusive model (i.e. students with disabilities follow an inclusive curriculum along with able-bodied students) is a long-term process.

As countries move toward more inclusive education, special schools and their staff can play a key role by acting as specialized experts and helping mainstream schools achieve greater inclusion (UNESCO, 2017). The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) studied the inclusion of students with disabilities in education sector plans in 51 countries. Seventeen of them are considering a two-pronged approach: to integrate disability in education and to invest in actions and services aimed specifically at meeting the needs of children with disabilities (GPE, 2018).

Many obstacles prevent children and young people with disabilities from attending a mainstream school.

• Identifying pupils with disabilities . Prejudices and social attitudes lead to under-declaring the number of children with disabilities (GPE, 2018). Certain families, fearing stigmatisation, do not send their children to school (Singal, 2015; EDT and UNICEF, 2016). Due to the hidden nature of certain learning difficulties, the total population of these children is largely unknown (World Bank, 2019). Identifying these children at school is rare (Wodon et al, 2018). Recognizing disabilities may be limited to observable disabilities and not necessarily those that affect the child's ability to learn (EDT and UNICEF, 2016). Obsolete and inadequate data complicate effective educational planning and hinder decision-making and resource allocation (GPE, 2018). In addition, countries use different measurements, methods and definitions to classify disabilities thus affecting their ability to compare data (GPE, 2018; Price, 2018).
• Lack of trained teachers. In many countries, teachers do not have the confidence or the necessary skills to deliver inclusive education (Singal, 2015; Wodon et al, 2018). Inclusive education is only a small component of the training received by teachers and is not always assessed (EDT and UNICEF, 2016).
• Poorly adapted school facilities and learning materials. Poorly adapted infrastructures and a lack of accessible learning materials are significant obstacles. This is particularly true in rural areas where increased levels of poverty, poor services, and recurrent infrastructure failings exacerbate these existing problems for children with disabilities (SADPD, 2012). School curricula that solely rely on passive learning methods, such as drilling, dictation, and copying from the blackboard, further limit access to quality education for children with disabilities (Humanity & Inclusion, 2015).
• Lack of resources. Whether it concerns building adapted schools, reducing class sizes or teacher training, financial and human resources are required (Grimes, Stevens and Kumar, 2015). Funds earmarked for special needs are often insufficient. Where funding is available, it is primarily intended for schools and special units, rather than being used for the needs of students enrolled in mainstream schools and removing existing barriers (Mariga, McConkey and Myezwa, 2014).
• Assessing learning. There are few data on the learning outcomes of students with disabilities. Examinations and tests rarely make accommodations for these students putting them at a disadvantage. Most international performance tests exclude students with disabilities, which, in turn, reinforces low expectations (Schuelka, 2013 cited in Price, 2018; World Bank, 2019).

POLICY AND PLANNING

• Defining a policy for inclusive education. Inclusive education requires a systemic examination of education systems and school cultures. Promoting social justice and inclusive education requires drawing up, implementing and assessing plans and policies that favour inclusive education for all. Every country needs to formulate its own set of solutions that reach down to the level of individual schools (Grant Lewis, 2019).
• Facilitating access to learning. The first step to including children with disabilities in mainstream schools is the provision of adapted school facilities e.g. ramps, toilets, special equipment, and apparatus, as well as making appropriate teaching and learning materials available (SADPD, 2012; Malik et al., 2018). To encourage the enrolment of girls with disabilities, special measures could comprise grants or allowances (GPE, 2018).
• Strengthening partnerships. Inclusive education requires creating partnerships with local stakeholders i.e. parents, schools, communities, countries, ministries, and development partners (Grant Lewis, 2019). Partnerships which capitalize on local knowledge and resources have proven to be effective (SADPD, 2012; EDT and UNICEF, 2016; GPE, 2018). One recommendation is to give particular support to parents to raise their awareness of the importance of inclusive education and to integrate them into the educational community, for example by participating in school activities (GPE, 2018).
• Ensuring adequate teacher training. The ability of teachers to provide quality education to students with disabilities depends on their training and qualifications (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2015). However, teachers often struggle due to already overcrowded classes. Offering upstream pre-service training for future teachers, investing in in-service teacher training comprising practical stages and a mentoring system are approaches that have proved their effectiveness (Ackers, 2018). However, it is important to train specialized teachers as it is not possible to train all mainstream teachers to be sufficiently fluent in Braille, national sign language, and augmentative and alternative communication modes (EDT and UNICEF, 2016). The Global Partnership for Education has also highlighted the importance of training teachers to identify disabilities (GPE, 2018).
• Statistics to reinforce human support. Although data are rare, there are tools which can be used to monitor the participation and learning of students with disabilities. Data from household surveys are used to monitor school attendance and success rates for children, as well as to examine factors linked to non-attendance; Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) collect administrative data about school attendance, student behaviour, and progress. However, qualitative data are also needed to shed light on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the lives of students, teachers, and parents (Mont, 2018). Equally important is the collection of data on the school environment, such as the physical accessibility of schools, information on policies and legislation, teaching materials, teacher training and the availability of support specialists in schools (Grant Lewis, 2018).
• Assessing students. The Salamanca Statement advocates formative assessment to identify difficulties and help students overcome them (Salamanca Statement, 1994). Sæbønes et al. (2015) recommend classroom assessments for individual learning. They recommend that regional and national examinations and international learning assessments systematically include all students and provide reasonable accommodations for learners with disabilities. A study conducted in Kenya shows that it is possible to carry out large-scale learning assessments of deaf and blind children. However, in order to design these adapted tools, human, material and financial resources are necessary (Piper et al., 2019). For an overview of the issue of learning assessments and students with disabilities see World Bank, 2019.
• Investing in technology. According to UNESCO “ICTs can be a valuable tool for learners with disabilities who are vulnerable to the digital divide and exclusion from educational opportunities” (UNESCO, 2014: 10). To reduce barriers, their model policy recommends the use of inclusive ICTs, commercially available products that are, as far as possible, accessible to all, as well as assistive technology to enable access when this is not possible using products available on the market. (UNESCO, 2014: 11).
• Cost. It is important to find ways to meet the needs of the most marginalized without additional funding (UNESCO, 2017). Approaches, such as analysing data from household surveys, suggest that the returns on investing in education for children with disabilities are high and similar to those for people without disabilities. Therefore, investing in the education of children with disabilities is both smart and profitable (Wodon et al., 2018). UNESCO recommends setting up or strengthening financial monitoring systems, as well as creating partnerships between governments and donors (UNESCO, 2017). Finally, the comparison between the cost of specialized institutions and inclusive institutions reveals that the inclusive system is more efficient (Open Society Foundations, n.d.; Inclusion International. n.d.).
• Proposing inclusive pedagogy. The type of disability (autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, language, hearing, etc.) influences the learning method. Inclusive pedagogy requires a shift in the educational culture within teaching and support practices i.e. moving away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ education towards a tailored approach to increase the capacity of the system to meet the diverse needs of learners without the need to categorize or label them (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2017). We move away from the idea of inclusion as a specialized response to certain learners, to allow them to access or participate in what is offered to most students (Florian, 2015). Inclusive pedagogy implies having resources and services that can be used by all students without the need for adaptation or specialized planning (UNESCO, 2017: 19).

Plans and policies

• Fiji: Policy on special and inclusive education (2016)
•  Kenya: Sector policy for learners and trainees with disabilities (2018)
• South Africa: Policy on screening, identification, assessment, and support (2014)
• Fiji. Ministry of Education; Australian Agency for International Development. 2017. Fiji Education Management Information System (FEMIS): Disability disaggregation package. Guidelines and forms.
•  Bulat, J.; Macon, W.; Ticha, R.; Abery, B. 2017. School and classroom disabilities inclusion guide for low- and middle-income countries. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI Press.
•  Ethiopia. Ministry of Education. 2015. Guideline for establishing and managing inclusive education resource/support centers (RCs). Addis Ababa: Federal Ministry of Education.
• Hayes, A. M.; Bulat, J. 2017. Disabilities inclusive education systems and policies guide for low- and middle-income countries . Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI Press.
• UNESCO. 2017. A Guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education. Paris: UNESCO.

Ackers, J. 2018. “Teacher education and inclusive education”. The IIEP Letter 34 (2)

Alquraini, T.; Gut, D. 2012. Critical components of successful inclusion of students with severe disabilities: International Journal of Special Education 27 (1): 42 59.

Convention against discrimination in education.

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning . 2016.

Education Development Trust; UNICEF. 2016. Eastern and Southern Africa regional study on the fulfilment of the right to education of children with disabilities. Reading: EDT.

European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. 2015. Empowering teachers to promote inclusive education: A case study of approaches to training and support for inclusive teacher practice. Odense: European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education.

European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. 2017. Inclusive education for learners with disabilities. Study for the Peti committee. Brussels: European Union.

Florian, L. 2015. Inclusive Pedagogy: A transformative approach to individual differences but can it help reduce educational inequalities? Scottish Educational Review 47 (1): 5 14.

Grant Lewis, S. 2019. ' Opinion: The urgent need to plan for disability-inclusive education'. Devex. 6 February 2019.

Grimes, P.; Stevens, M.; Kumar, K. 2015. 'An examination of the evolution of policies and strategies to improve access to education for children with disabilities with a focus on inclusive education approaches, the success and challenges'. Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2015, Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and challenges.

Humanity & Inclusion. 2015. Education for all? This is still not a reality for most children with disabilities.

Inclusion International. n.d. FAQs - Inclusion International .

Male, C.; Wodon, Q. 2018. Disability gaps in educational attainment and literacy. The price of exclusion: disability and education. Washington, DC: World Bank; GPE.

Mariga, L.; McConkey, R.; Myezwa, H. 2014. Inclusive education in low-income countries: A resource for teacher educators, parent trainers and community development workers . Cape Town: Atlas Alliance and Disability Innovations Africa.

Mont, D. 2018. Collecting data for inclusive education . IIEP Learning Portal (blog).

Open Society Foundations. n. d. ' The power of letting children learn together'.

Global Partnership for Education (GPE). 2018. Disability and inclusive education - a stocktake of education sector plans and GPE-funded grants. Washington, DC: GPE.

Piper, B.; Bulat, J.; Kwayumba, D.; Oketch, J.; Gangla, L. 2019. Measuring literacy outcomes for the blind and for the deaf: Nationally representative results from Kenya. International Journal of Educational Development 69 (September)

Price, R. 2018. Inclusive and special education approaches in developing countries. K4D Helpdesk Report.

Rose, P.; Singal, N.; Bari, F.; Malik, R.; Kamran, S. 2018. Identifying disability in household surveys: evidence on education access and learning for children with disabilities in Pakistan. Policy Paper, 18/1. Cambridge: REAL Centre. University of Cambridge.

Sæbønes, A.-M.; Berman Bieler, R.; Baboo, N.; Banham, L.; Singal, N.; Howgego, C.; Vuyiswa McClain-Nhlapo, C.; Riis-Hansen, T. C.; Dansie, G. A. ' Towards a disability inclusive education '. Background paper for the Oslo Summit on Education for Development, 6-7 July 2015.

Salamanca Statement and the Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. 1994.

Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities. 2012. Study on education for children with disabilities in Southern Africa. Pretoria: SADPD.

Singal, N. 2015. Education of children with disabilities in India and Pakistan: an analysis of developments since 2000. Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2015, Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and challenges.

UIS. 2018. Education and disability: analysis of data from 49 countries. Information Paper 49. Montreal: UIS.

UNESCO. 2014. Model policy for inclusive ICTs in education for persons with disabilities. Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO. 2017. A Guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education . Paris: UNESCO.

United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2018. ' Realization of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities'. UN Flagship Report on Disability and Development 2018. Advanced unedited version. New York: United Nations.

Universal Declaration on Human Rights . 1948

Wodon, Q.; Male, C.; Montenegro, C.; Nayihouba, A. 2018. The challenge of inclusive education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank.

World Bank. 2019. Every learner matters: Unpacking the learning crisis for children with disabilities . Washington, DC: World Bank.

Related information

• Global education monitoring report, 2020: Inclusion and education: all means all
• IIEP, planning for inclusive education
• UNESCO: Inclusion in education
• Inclusive education

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Considering the potential of inclusive education at your school? Perhaps you are currently working in an inclusive classroom and looking for effective strategies. Lean into this deep-dive article on inclusive education to gather a solid understanding of what it means, what the research shows, and proven strategies that bring out the benefits for everyone.

What is inclusive education? What does it mean?

Inclusive education is when all students, regardless of any challenges they may have, are placed in age-appropriate general education classes that are in their own neighborhood schools to receive high-quality instruction, interventions, and supports that enable them to meet success in the core curriculum (Bui, Quirk, Almazan, & Valenti, 2010; Alquraini & Gut, 2012).

The school and classroom operate on the premise that students with disabilities are as fundamentally competent as students without disabilities. Therefore, all students can be full participants in their classrooms and in the local school community. Much of the movement is related to legislation that students receive their education in the least restrictive environment (LRE). This means they are with their peers without disabilities to the maximum degree possible, with general education the placement of first choice for all students (Alquraini & Gut, 2012).

Successful inclusive education happens primarily through accepting, understanding, and attending to student differences and diversity, which can include physical, cognitive, academic, social, and emotional. This is not to say that students never need to spend time out of regular education classes, because sometimes they do for a very particular purpose — for instance, for speech or occupational therapy. But the goal is this should be the exception.

The driving principle is to make all students feel welcomed, appropriately challenged, and supported in their efforts. It’s also critically important that the adults are supported, too. This includes the regular education teacher and the special education teacher , as well as all other staff and faculty who are key stakeholders — and that also includes parents.

The research basis for inclusive education

Inclusive education and inclusive classrooms are gaining steam because there is so much research-based evidence around the benefits. Take a look.

Benefits for students

Simply put, both students with and without disabilities learn more . Many studies over the past three decades have found that students with disabilities have higher achievement and improved skills through inclusive education, and their peers without challenges benefit, too (Bui, et al., 2010; Dupuis, Barclay, Holms, Platt, Shaha, & Lewis, 2006; Newman, 2006; Alquraini & Gut, 2012).

For students with disabilities ( SWD ), this includes academic gains in literacy (reading and writing), math, and social studies — both in grades and on standardized tests — better communication skills, and improved social skills and more friendships. More time in the general classroom for SWD is also associated with fewer absences and referrals for disruptive behavior. This could be related to findings about attitude — they have a higher self-concept, they like school and their teachers more, and are more motivated around working and learning.

Their peers without disabilities also show more positive attitudes in these same areas when in inclusive classrooms. They make greater academic gains in reading and math. Research shows the presence of SWD gives non-SWD new kinds of learning opportunities. One of these is when they serve as peer-coaches. By learning how to help another student, their own performance improves. Another is that as teachers take into greater consideration their diverse SWD learners, they provide instruction in a wider range of learning modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic), which benefits their regular ed students as well.

Researchers often explore concerns and potential pitfalls that might make instruction less effective in inclusion classrooms (Bui et al., 2010; Dupois et al., 2006). But findings show this is not the case. Neither instructional time nor how much time students are engaged differs between inclusive and non-inclusive classrooms. In fact, in many instances, regular ed students report little to no awareness that there even are students with disabilities in their classes. When they are aware, they demonstrate more acceptance and tolerance for SWD when they all experience an inclusive education together.

Parent’s feelings and attitudes

Parents, of course, have a big part to play. A comprehensive review of the literature (de Boer, Pijl, & Minnaert, 2010) found that on average, parents are somewhat uncertain if inclusion is a good option for their SWD . On the upside, the more experience with inclusive education they had, the more positive parents of SWD were about it. Additionally, parents of regular ed students held a decidedly positive attitude toward inclusive education.

Now that we’ve seen the research highlights on outcomes, let’s take a look at strategies to put inclusive education in practice.

Inclusive classroom strategies

There is a definite need for teachers to be supported in implementing an inclusive classroom. A rigorous literature review of studies found most teachers had either neutral or negative attitudes about inclusive education (de Boer, Pijl, & Minnaert, 2011). It turns out that much of this is because they do not feel they are very knowledgeable, competent, or confident about how to educate SWD .

However, similar to parents, teachers with more experience — and, in the case of teachers, more training with inclusive education — were significantly more positive about it. Evidence supports that to be effective, teachers need an understanding of best practices in teaching and of adapted instruction for SWD ; but positive attitudes toward inclusion are also among the most important for creating an inclusive classroom that works (Savage & Erten, 2015).

Of course, a modest blog article like this is only going to give the highlights of what have been found to be effective inclusive strategies. For there to be true long-term success necessitates formal training. To give you an idea though, here are strategies recommended by several research studies and applied experience (Morningstar, Shogren, Lee, & Born, 2015; Alquraini, & Gut, 2012).

Use a variety of instructional formats

Start with whole-group instruction and transition to flexible groupings which could be small groups, stations/centers, and paired learning. With regard to the whole group, using technology such as interactive whiteboards is related to high student engagement. Regarding flexible groupings: for younger students, these are often teacher-led but for older students, they can be student-led with teacher monitoring. Peer-supported learning can be very effective and engaging and take the form of pair-work, cooperative grouping, peer tutoring, and student-led demonstrations.

Ensure access to academic curricular content

All students need the opportunity to have learning experiences in line with the same learning goals. This will necessitate thinking about what supports individual SWDs need, but overall strategies are making sure all students hear instructions, that they do indeed start activities, that all students participate in large group instruction, and that students transition in and out of the classroom at the same time. For this latter point, not only will it keep students on track with the lessons, their non-SWD peers do not see them leaving or entering in the middle of lessons, which can really highlight their differences.

Apply universal design for learning

These are methods that are varied and that support many learners’ needs. They include multiple ways of representing content to students and for students to represent learning back, such as modeling, images, objectives and manipulatives, graphic organizers, oral and written responses, and technology. These can also be adapted as modifications for SWDs where they have large print, use headphones, are allowed to have a peer write their dictated response, draw a picture instead, use calculators, or just have extra time. Think too about the power of project-based and inquiry learning where students individually or collectively investigate an experience.

Now let’s put it all together by looking at how a regular education teacher addresses the challenge and succeeds in using inclusive education in her classroom.

A case study of inclusive practices in schools and classes

Mrs. Brown has been teaching for several years now and is both excited and a little nervous about her school’s decision to implement inclusive education. Over the years she has had several special education students in her class but they either got pulled out for time with specialists or just joined for activities like art, music, P.E., lunch, and sometimes for selected academics.

She has always found this method a bit disjointed and has wanted to be much more involved in educating these students and finding ways they can take part more fully in her classroom. She knows she needs guidance in designing and implementing her inclusive classroom, but she’s ready for the challenge and looking forward to seeing the many benefits she’s been reading and hearing about for the children, their families, their peers, herself, and the school as a whole.

During the month before school starts, Mrs. Brown meets with the special education teacher, Mr. Lopez — and other teachers and staff who work with her students — to coordinate the instructional plan that is based on the IEPs (Individual Educational Plan) of the three students with disabilities who will be in her class the upcoming year.

About two weeks before school starts, she invites each of the three children and their families to come into the classroom for individual tours and get-to-know-you sessions with both herself and the special education teacher. She makes sure to provide information about back-to-school night and extends a personal invitation to them to attend so they can meet the other families and children. She feels very good about how this is coming together and how excited and happy the children and their families are feeling. One student really summed it up when he told her, “You and I are going to have a great year!”

The school district and the principal have sent out communications to all the parents about the move to inclusion education at Mrs. Brown’s school. Now she wants to make sure she really communicates effectively with the parents, especially as some of the parents of both SWD and regular ed students have expressed hesitation that having their child in an inclusive classroom would work.

She talks to the administration and other teachers and, with their okay, sends out a joint communication after about two months into the school year with some questions provided by the book Creating Inclusive Classrooms (Salend, 2001 referenced in Salend & Garrick-Duhaney, 2001) such as, “How has being in an inclusion classroom affected your child academically, socially, and behaviorally? Please describe any benefits or negative consequences you have observed in your child. What factors led to these changes?” and “How has your child’s placement in an inclusion classroom affected you? Please describe any benefits or any negative consequences for you.” and “What additional information would you like to have about inclusion and your child’s class?” She plans to look for trends and prepare a communication that she will share with parents. She also plans to send out a questionnaire with different questions every couple of months throughout the school year.

Since she found out about the move to an inclusive education approach at her school, Mrs. Brown has been working closely with the special education teacher, Mr. Lopez, and reading a great deal about the benefits and the challenges. Determined to be successful, she is especially focused on effective inclusive classroom strategies.

Her hard work is paying off. Her mid-year and end-of-year results are very positive. The SWDs are meeting their IEP goals. Her regular ed students are excelling. A spirit of collaboration and positive energy pervades her classroom and she feels this in the whole school as they practice inclusive education. The children are happy and proud of their accomplishments. The principal regularly compliments her. The parents are positive, relaxed, and supportive.

Mrs. Brown knows she has more to learn and do, but her confidence and satisfaction are high. She is especially delighted that she has been selected to be a part of her district’s team to train other regular education teachers about inclusive education and classrooms.

The future is very bright indeed for this approach. The evidence is mounting that inclusive education and classrooms are able to not only meet the requirements of LRE for students with disabilities, but to benefit regular education students as well. We see that with exposure both parents and teachers become more positive. Training and support allow regular education teachers to implement inclusive education with ease and success. All around it’s a win-win!

Lilla Dale McManis, MEd, PhD has a BS in child development, an MEd in special education, and a PhD in educational psychology. She was a K-12 public school special education teacher for many years and has worked at universities, state agencies, and in industry teaching prospective teachers, conducting research and evaluation with at-risk populations, and designing educational technology. Currently, she is President of Parent in the Know where she works with families in need and also does business consulting.

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to,  Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects.  Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19.  Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising.  Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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Inclusive education development and challenges: Insights into the Middle East and North Africa region

• Published: 24 September 2020
• Volume 49 , pages 153–167, ( 2020 )

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• Maha Khochen-Bagshaw   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2361-8148 1  

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Developments within education systems in many countries have been moving toward inclusion. Inclusion, however, is a contested term, understood differently by different individuals. How it is interpreted in practice also differs across local, regional, and country levels. This article discusses the development of inclusion and its understanding and application in Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East and North Africa region, with the intention of understanding better the regional contexts of inclusive education and informing the future efforts of education reformers. More specifically, it reflects on existing education provisions for children with disabilities in these countries, using personal and professional experiences in disability and inclusion across the region, supported by relevant literature. Progress toward inclusion is at different stages of development across the region, and its development is slow and fractured. There is a need to create research-driven national frameworks to promote disability inclusion that align governmental and nongovernmental efforts in each country. Finally, the article encourages collaboration as a way of promoting inclusion in and across the region, capitalizing on the growing expertise available as well as on the cultural and linguistic similarities present there.

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I would like to acknowledge the following organizations for the consultancy missions they entrusted me with, which have contributed to expanding my experience and knowledge of disability inclusion in the region: the British Council, UNICEF, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Oxford University Press, Christopher Blind Mission, and Open Society Foundations. I would also like to extend my warmest gratitude for invaluable insights to all ministry representatives, educators, and inclusion advocates with whom I have interacted in one way or another during my missions in the region. I am grateful for all the feedback, comments, and support I have received while writing this article.

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Khochen-Bagshaw, M. Inclusive education development and challenges: Insights into the Middle East and North Africa region. Prospects 49 , 153–167 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09507-9

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Challenges for delivering inclusive education in Australia

What challenges do teachers face when delivering inclusive education? How could we begin to address this? In the first of two articles, Dr Erin Leif, Dr Laura Alfrey and Dr Christine Grove from Monash University explore these questions, and in tomorrow’s follow-up they’ll share some practical strategies for teachers.

The term ‘inclusive education’ often refers to teaching and learning experiences designed to support young people with disabilities or additional needs to participate and learn. In this instance, however, we seek to move away from labels that cause division. Instead, we view inclusive education as an opportunity to celebrate diversity via the creation of shared learning experiences that offer all students equal opportunity to participate and succeed. Whilst we strive to move beyond labels where possible, and our focus is on education for all, policy and research traditions mean that certain labels are referred to in this article.

The policy landscape

Over the past several decades, inclusive education has emerged as a core value of Australian society. The growth of the movement toward inclusion in education has been influenced by research findings demonstrating that students with disability can and do thrive academically, emotionally, and socially when educated side-by-side with their non-disabled peers. Such findings have in turn influenced policy development; current Australian legislation and policy dictate that we all, as educators, have an obligation to offer all students equal opportunity to participate and succeed at school.

Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, for example, states that ‘without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, [signatories] shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels’. In an Australian context, the Mparntwe (Alice Springs) Declaration calls for inclusion to be a central thread of Australian education. The Declaration is guided by two interconnected goals: 1) The Australian education system promotes excellence and equity; and 2) All young Australians become:

• confident and creative individuals;
• successful lifelong learners; and,
• active and informed members of the community.

Furthermore, the Declaration states that all Australian Governments will work with the education community to, for example:

• Provide all young Australians with access to high-quality education that is inclusive and free from any form of discrimination;
• Recognise the individual needs of all young Australians, identify barriers that can be addressed, and empower learners to overcome barriers;
• Promote personalised learning and provide support that aims to fulfil the individual capabilities and needs of learners.

What are the benefits of inclusive education?

Inclusive education benefits students and the wider community in numerous ways. Inclusive education allows all learners, including those with disabilities and additional needs, to develop individual strengths, work at a level of optimal challenge, and foster feelings of belonging and inclusion.

A review of the evidence from more than 280 research studies conducted in 25 countries found that inclusive education is associated with higher educational attainment and improved social and emotional outcomes for students with disabilities (Hehir et al., 2016). In addition, the enactment of inclusive education allows young people to receive education in their local communities, which allows them to build social connections and an informal support network within their neighbourhood. Attending the local school in which the young person lives may reduce family stress related to travel time to and from school, feelings of isolation, and a lack of social support.

Building an inclusive culture within schools has been shown to reduce incidences of bullying and provide meaningful opportunities for all students to learn about difference and diversity. Of note, research has also shown that inclusive education is associated with higher educational attainment and improved social and emotional outcomes for students without disabilities (Hehir et al., 2016). This may be because educators in inclusive schools are more likely to use inclusive teaching practices and differentiate their instruction to give all students the opportunity to succeed. This will likely benefit students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and students with learning and thinking differences, but who do not have a disability.

However, delivering inclusive education is a dynamic and often challenging process that is always in flux.

What challenges do teachers face?

Despite continuing attempts to develop and sustain inclusive approaches in schools, it remains challenging. Numerous explanations have been put forth to explain why the enactment of inclusive education remains challenging in practice.

One reason is the limited focus on inclusive education within some initial teacher education or continuing professional development. As such, teachers have reported that they do not feel adequately prepared to teach inclusively because they have not had sufficient opportunities to develop necessary knowledge, skills and strategies. This is compounded by the fact that teachers have consistently reported that they lack sufficient time, resources, and support to plan and teach inclusively (Fox et al., 2021).

Teachers need time to plan high quality lessons that account for student diversity, time to enact differentiated learning that meets the needs of all students, and time to reflect on their own teaching practice to further refine their practice. Unfortunately, time for these important tasks seems to be the exception rather than the norm in today’s busy classrooms.

Whilst it can be beneficial for children with disabilities to attend mainstream schools, this is on the proviso that teachers have had sufficient opportunities to develop necessary knowledge, skills and strategies. As we have already mentioned, this is not always the case. Whilst diverse class spaces might create an ‘illusion of inclusion,’ they have the potential to do more harm than good if both teachers and students are not adequately supported.

Without sustained support (for both teachers and students), students with disabilities may continue to be exposed to low expectations or suffer negative social consequences like being excluded and bullied, which can result in depression, poor self-esteem, social isolation, suicidal ideation, and decreased academic performance (Sagun-Ongtangco et al., 2019).

Common components of effective inclusive schools

Extensive research has outlined several common, key components and qualities of effective inclusive schools, which include: supportive leadership; quality professional development; high-quality instruction using evidence-based approaches that focus on the abilities of children rather than their limitations; high teacher self-efficacy and a positive attitude towards inclusion; additional support for both children and teachers; and collaborative learning amongst children and between specialist teachers and general education teachers (Duncan et al., 2021; Lyons et al. 2016; Sharma et al., 2008).

If universities, schools, leadership and educators take action collectively, they are more likely to experience the benefits of inclusive education, as highlighted above. That is to say, they will be better placed to provide an effective and inclusive learning environment that meets the social, academic and developmental needs of students of all abilities or disabilities, cultural backgrounds, gender, economic status or difference. The answer perhaps lies in a quote from Lyons and colleagues (2016), that ‘progress and change are not possible without action’ (p. 903).

Stay tuned: In tomorrow’s article Dr Erin Leif, Dr Laura Alfrey and Dr Christine Grove present a practical and action-oriented approach for delivering inclusive education drawing on practices that many teachers are likely already using.

Duncan, J., Punch, R., & Croce, N. (2021). Supporting Primary and Secondary Teachers to Deliver Inclusive Education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 46 (4), 6. http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2021v46n4.6

Fox, R. A., Sharma, U., Leif, E. S., Stocker, K. L., & Moore, D. W. (2021). ‘Not Enough Time’: identifying Victorian Teachers’ Perceptions of the Facilitators and Barriers to Supporting Improved Student Behaviour. Australasian Journal of Special and Inclusive Education, First view , 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1017/jsi.2021.6

Hehir, T., Grindal, T., Freeman, B., Lamoreau, R., Borquaye, Y., & Burke, S. (2016). A Summary of the Evidence on Inclusive Education. Abt Associates. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED596134

Lyons, W. E., Thompson, S. A., & Timmons, V. (2016). ‘We are inclusive. We are a team. Let's just do it': commitment, collective efficacy, and agency in four inclusive schools. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20 (8), 889-907. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1122841

Sagun-Ongtangco, K. S., Medallon, K. G., & Tan, A. J. (2021). Inclusive classrooms: making it work for peers of children with disability . International Journal of Inclusive Education , 25 (5), 623-639. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1568596

Sharma, U., Forlin, C., & Loreman, T. (2008). Impact of training on pre‐service teachers' attitudes and concerns about inclusive education and sentiments about persons with disabilities. Disability & society, 23 (7), 773-785. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687590802469271

The authors of this article say ‘teachers have reported that they do not feel adequately prepared to teach inclusively because they have not had sufficient opportunities to develop necessary knowledge, skills and strategies’.

As a school leader, reflect on the professional development opportunities coming up for your staff. Is inclusive education covered? When was the last time you identified any areas of improvement for the knowledge, skills and strategies associated with inclusive education? In what other ways could you support your staff to teach inclusively?

Related articles

Challenges of Inclusive Education

Education of Children with Special Need has come a long way from Special Education to Integrated Education and from integrated education to inclusive education. Children with Special Needs(CWSN) required education in regular school, in their own society and by regular Teachers. Inclusion Values diversity. It acknowledges every learner,s fundamental right to learn and accepts that every child has unique abilities and needs

Issues and Challenges of Inclusive Education

There are various issues and Challenges face by Children with Special Needs (CWSN) in inclusive education are:

• Characteristics of Individual Pupils: As we know in a diverse classroom all of the children are sitting together in a classroom. There are many students suffer from different disabilities. It is very difficult to identify them from a diverse classroom.
• Lack of access to the mainstream: At present only 4 to 5% of children with special needs out of 30 million have access to education. Many schools do not show a willingness to cater to the needs of these children
• Lack of awareness and Attitude: The whole idea of inclusive education is defeated due to lack of awareness, positive attitude and sensitivity on the part of teachers, classmates, parents and community and as a result these children experience discrimination. 
• Lack of trained teachers: Teachers lack competence and will to modify methodology as per the need of children with special need and other children
• Large class size: There are normally 60 to 70 students in a class which makes individualized attention very difficult and teachers find it all the more difficult with children with special needs.
• Lack of child-centred and relevant Curriculum: The curriculum lacks flexibility and does not provide choice to these children. The teaching-learning material is also not appropriate for children with and without special need.
• Lack of proper infrastructure: Children with specials need to require various types of teaching and learning aids. In India, most of the schools do not have proper teaching and learning aids
• Lack of participatory activities : Children with special need require such a learning environment in which they can learn by participating in small groups
• Involvement of parent and Community: As we know the children with learning disabilities are less encouraging. So the non-involvement of parents and community become a barrier
• Accountability: The lack of accountability of teachers poses challenges in inclusive education
• Partnership: Partnership between the parents, Teachers, School and Community etc to make the programme success. We found that the programme is missing
• Collaboration or consultation: The collaboration between the different agencies of education such as Government, NGO, Community. We found that there is a lack of collaboration between them
• Lack of Support: CWSN children required regular support from parents and teachers to make satisfactory learning. We found that there is a lack of support in some school even they discriminate those children with special needs
• Peer Rejection: peers generally tries to bullying and sometimes reject them. They feel that these children are not a part of them. This is one of the major cause of children drops out of school. Peer rejection is one of the main barriers of inclusive education
• Labelling: It means that categories of such children as per their disabilities.  These labelling does not suit them because they feel rejected

In Conclusion, The realization of the slogan of the millennium “EDUCATION FOR ALL” is not possible unless educational opportunities are provided to all including the children with special needs.

Knowing the massive number of children with special needs and limitations of the formal system non-formal and informal mode of education must provide their support.

Many open universities including IGNOU is providing need-based education and training. ODL mode provides flexible time, location and is self-paced thus fitting into such a schedule that is suitable for children with special needs. At the same time, regular schools should be encouraged to welcome diversity and let the children with special needs feel that they are welcomed. [ 3 ]

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The challenges for educational inclusion in Latin America in the voices of ministerial experts

The event was organized by the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Santiago, the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports of Spain (MEFPD), and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

At the event, held at the Spanish Cooperation Training Center in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, delegations from 17 Ibero-American countries participated, including authorities from ministries and departments of Education from Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The attending countries determined the design of a roadmap to ensure the right to education for people with disabilities in Ibero-America and approved the update of the Regional Information System for Students with Disabilities (SIRIED), whose implementation will be applied in 13 Member States of the RIINEE.

The authorities and specialists attending the conference identified the challenges for the educational inclusion of people with disabilities and the effectiveness of public policies in their countries and in Latin America.

Lucía Vázquez, General Director of Special Education at the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic

Following the event, Lucía Vázquez, General Director of Special Education at the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic , highlighted the importance of these meetings to ensure the continuity of what her country is doing regarding the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , specifically concerning Article 24, on the education of students with disabilities.

According to Vázquez, the Dominican Republic benefits from the RIINEE Network and the Regional Information System for Students with Disabilities (SIRIED) because the documents provided by these mechanisms allow for complementing the information from her country's Census, which is insufficient for the characterization of students with disabilities, complicating their educational inclusion: “The biggest challenge is statistics. People with disabilities are not really classified; only a percentage: 12% of people with disabilities are counted. But for education, it is so crucial to know how many are of school age, how many we have in the system, and who are missing. We have 28,100 registered students, but there are those we don't have, and for that, we are going to conduct surveys, so they can enter the schools of our country.”

Lisandro Fallas, national advisor of the Department of Educational Support for Students with Disabilities at the Ministry of Education of Costa Rica

For his part, Lisandro Fallas, national advisor of the Department of Educational Support for Students with Disabilities at the Ministry of Education of Costa Rica , mentioned the benefits of the conference and the challenges his country faces to achieve inclusion in education: "The importance of this meeting for us, as countries belonging to the RIINEE, is the ability to share experiences and also to take away the learnings from other countries. The challenges we face as a country are: the strengthening of a support system for the entire student population and, of course, from the perspective of this meeting, the possibility of accompaniment and political support," he concluded.

Jennifer Salazar, General Director of Special Education at the Ministry of Education of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Jennifer Salazar, General Director of Special Education at the Ministry of Education of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , asserted that, through the conference, the topic of educational inclusion "becomes a benchmark at a global level, so that our societies change, begin to broaden their view towards diversity. This space guarantees that we can make exchanges, can establish relationships with other types of people, to enrich our educational models, aiming towards educational inclusion."

According to Salazar, the main challenges to achieving inclusion of people with disabilities in the Venezuelan educational system "are connected to the ongoing training of teachers in early childhood education, primary education, and throughout the educational system, to truly welcome these children so that someone with any type of disability is never again invisible."

Olga Acosta, National Director of Educational Quality at the Ministry of Education of Colombia

Olga Acosta, National Director of Educational Quality at the Ministry of Education of Colombia , highlighted that the meeting with Ibero-American countries shows that a primary task for these nations is to embrace educational inclusion, so that more children can enter the system and eliminate the barriers that prevent the entire population from having access to education, in all its stages, completely.

Acosta pointed out that “the great challenge for Colombia is for all children, especially the youngest, to be able to access the educational system, so that no child with a disability has to stay at home, but rather that the school opens its doors for everyone to come together with all other children, to learn about life, about peace.” She also emphasized the need for greater inclusion in Colombian universities: “We believe that teachers must embrace diversity, that it becomes part of the school, and that university programs make it possible to bring the discussion of inclusion to the table, as a way to build a better country and a better society.”

Ausmenia Valencia, Director of Special Basic Education at the Ministry of Education of Peru

Ausmenia Valencia, Director of Special Basic Education at the Ministry of Education of Peru , identified the common challenge that Latin America and the Caribbean face in achieving inclusion and discussed the issues affecting her country. "Peru has significant challenges in this area, and I believe one of them is teacher training. While it is true that we are in the process of training and also providing technical assistance, it is important to consider initial and ongoing, continuous training for teachers. As well as providing them with the necessary materials and resources, so that this process can be carried out under the best conditions. Many barriers need to be overcome, including those related to the curriculum, accessibility, and methodology. But I believe there is an even more important barrier, which is attitudinal. We need to change our philosophy, our outlook, the way we see people, children, and youth with disabilities: to see not only their barriers but also their strengths," she stated.

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• Inclusive education
• Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
• UNESCO Office in Santiago and Regional Bureau for Education
• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
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This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

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Challenges and Barriers to Inclusive Education

Physical Barriers, Attitudinal Barriers, Accessibility, Financial, Educational, Social, Emotional, Curriculum, Infrastructure, Pedagogical…..

Although the Government has attempted to create policies that are inclusive for people with disabilities, their implementation efforts have not resulted in an inclusive system of education, nor have they reached their goal of “education for all” across the country. It is because of various barriers which are both external and internal as well. These barriers, being faced by children with disabilities are summarized below.

1. ‘Special Educational Needs’ As ‘Barriers’ to Inclusion

Clough and Corbett (2000) are of the view that the very concept of ‘special educational needs’ act as ‘barriers’ to inclusion . The identification of children with special educational needs requires labeling and special treatment which is in no means a productive contribution to make to the inclusive education agenda. This discrimination is against the very concept of inclusion. To avoid this, the Salamanca Framework of Action has also referred to a move from the term ‘special educational needs’ to inclusive education .

2. Attitudinal Barriers

Negative and non-cooperating attitudes of the stake-holders like members of society, pears and teachers etc. that hinder inclusion are:

a. Social exclusion and Discrimination

Disabled persons are socially ostracized by non-disabled people in the less developed societies due to established beliefs that educating the disabled is senseless and futile. Many are marginalized by other dimensions such as poverty, gender and caste. The social exclusion and negative attitudes result in social discrimination and thus leads to isolation, which produces barriers to inclusion .

b. Peer Pressure

The peers in school, being the closest on par, play an important role in the lives of the children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are often an easy target for being teased and bullied by their non-disabled peers. This vulnerability to bullying is found across all types of disabilities. Hence, a negative peer attitude proves to be a major barrier to full social inclusion at school for students with disabilities.

b. Attitude of Regular Teachers

There are two general attitudes of regular teachers which affect their acceptance and commitment to implementing inclusion . Firstly, regular teachers considered children with disabilities as the responsibility of the resource teachers. Secondly, they felt children with disabilities to be a ‘disturbance’ to the class and as causing distractions which delayed course completion. Therefore, they choose to ignore their presence and concentrate on execution of their lesson plans.

3. Schools as Barriers

The challenges faced by children with disabilities who have secured admission in inclusive schools are:

a. Admission

Children with disabilities aspiring to study in inclusive school have the greater challenge in their attempt to secure admission. It is observed that most inclusive schools enroll children with only mild disabilities. They also give preference when parents are willing to take on the extra responsibility for their child. Parents’ inability to pay high fees, particularly in case of private schools, also is another barrier to get admission.

b. Accessibility Problem

Sometimes non-availability of school or its location in area that cannot be accessed becomes the major barrier for disabled children to get inclusive education . Students undergo difficulty in reaching the schools by themselves or with the help of their parents. Lack of proper local transport facilities add to the problem.

c. Buildings and Infrastructure

Children with disabilities face barriers if the building has not been constructed with their mobility needs in mind. Most school buildings don’t respond to the requirement of these learners properly. Students with special needs cannot access all the places in the compound such as playgrounds, washrooms, library, doors, passageways, stairs and steep ramps, recreational areas, etc.

d. Materials and Technology

For the hearing impaired students teachers hardly use any visual aids. Similarly, for the visually impaired the schools often do not provide Braille slate, Braille, Braille sheets, Braille-Text books.

e. Classroom Size

Another challenge in the inclusive schools is high teacher-student ratios. Generally in a normal classroom there are fifty to sixty students. For a teacher it is not possible to deal with so many learners with diversity. It becomes difficult for students to adjust with so many students and sometimes children with special needs feel alien in the normal classroom.

4. Curriculum as a Barrier

In any education system, the curriculum is one of the major obstacles or tools to facilitate the development of more inclusive system. In our country curriculum is unable to meet the needs of a wide range of different learners. In it, there is little flexibility for local adaptations or for teachers to experiment and try out new approaches. As a result of the knowledge based curriculum, the examinations are also too much content oriented rather than success oriented. This is also a barrier to measure the achievement of children with special needs.

5. Untrained Teachers as Barrier

Teachers’ training, abilities and attitudes can be major limitations for inclusive education . The teachers are not trained adequately to teach the children with special needs. At present, training to teachers is fragmented, uncoordinated and inadequate taking place in a segregated manner i.e. one for special children and another for students with general capabilities. So, all teachers do not have proper skills and positive attitudes towards learners with special needs, it is unlikely that these children will receive satisfactory education.

6. Constraint of Resources

Lack of adequate financial resources is a big challenge to inclusion . For inclusion every institution would be required to make financial provisions for providing facilities like lifts, ramps, barrier free classrooms, toilets etc. Technology could be used in the form of motion sensors to open doors, flush toilets and automatic door buttons for easier access through doors. There would be a need to create learning resources for persons with disability. This could be in the form of digital library, braille literature and additional visual resources for students with hearing disability etc. Financial resources would also be required to train and retrain faculty for teaching persons with disabilities in inclusive environment. For this, the Government’s spending on education will have to be increased to provide inclusive set up.

Courtesy: PARIPEX – IJR

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Developing Collaboration with Family and Other Caregivers

Involving parents and the community is an important principle of quality, both in and out of the classroom. It is even more relevant in the case of inclusive education, which is much broader than formal education and should not only take place within the four walls of a classroom. Parents’ collaboration is not only of […]

Developing Collaboration within School Community

Peer support is a strategy that involves placing students in pairs or in small groups to participate in learning activities that support academic instruction and social skills.

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Ad Campaign Challenges Assumptions About Down Syndrome

by Shaun Heasley | March 20, 2024

Madison Tevlin appears in a video called "Assume That I Can," which is part of an international campaign promoting inclusion of people with Down syndrome. (CoorDown)

A new public awareness campaign backed by a host of organizations from around the world is urging people to reconsider their expectations of what’s possible for those with Down syndrome.

The advertising spot dubbed “Assume That I Can” features Madison Tevlin, an actress with the chromosomal disorder who’s known for the film “Champions,” challenging conventional wisdom.

At a bar, she details how the bartender assumes she cannot drink a margarita so she isn’t served one and doesn’t drink one. Likewise, parents assume their children with Down syndrome can’t live alone, a boxing coach doesn’t push her to hit harder and teachers assume that she cannot learn Shakespeare.

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“Your assumption becomes reality,” Tevlin says in the video before challenging people to take a different approach. “Assume that I can so maybe I will.”

The advertisement created by the New York-based agency SMALL was released ahead of Word Down Syndrome Day, which is held annually on March 21, by CoorDown, a Down syndrome organization in Italy. The group partnered with the National Down Syndrome Society, the Global Down Syndrome Foundation and others around the world on the campaign.

Alongside the ad, the advocacy organizations are spotlighting examples of real people with Down syndrome who are defying expectations on their social media pages as part of the effort.

“With the story of ‘Assume That I Can’ we show how each of us can contribute to inclusion by listening and looking at people with Down syndrome, their needs and desires without warped filter,” said Antonella Falugiani, president of CoorDown. “Only in this way can we tear down the walls that still limit the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.”

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2024 DEI Forum

Achieving equity together: navigating challenges while empowering diversity and inclusion in higher education, diversity, equity and inclusion forum, april 30-may 1, 2024, forum held virtually.

The DEI Forum offers a warm and inclusive virtual space where people from diverse backgrounds can unite to exchange ideas, foster connections, and jointly advance efforts towards anti-racism and social justice. Embracing an intersectional perspective, we honor and celebrate the diversity of identity, encompassing elements such as race, ability, age, gender, sexual orientation, language, socioeconomic status, and religion. Whether you’re just beginning your DEI journey or have been actively engaged for years, there’s something for everyone to learn and contribute to at the DEI Forum.

The theme of this year’s DEI Forum, “Achieving Equity Together: Navigating Challenges While Empowering Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education,” highlights the significance of working collaboratively to tackle the complexities and barriers involved in promoting equity within academic settings.

Over two enriching days, attendees will have the unique opportunity to glean insights from campus leadership, esteemed faculty, and dedicated professional staff. The event will feature engaging workshops and intimate small-group discussions, all centered around our unwavering commitment to social justice. Our primary goal is to ignite meaningful conversations and foster deeper connections within the UW tri-campus community. The diverse array of session topics will delve into actionable strategies for developing robust diversity initiatives, understanding the essential work required to dismantle systems of oppression, and laying the groundwork to ensure the success of marginalized communities in every facet of our campuses.

We believe that this forum will catalyze positive change, empowering each community member to contribute to the ongoing journey toward a more inclusive and equitable academic environment. Mark your calendars, and join us as we work together to create a university community that embraces diversity, champions equity, and values inclusion.

The DEI Forum is developed by pro-staff for pro-staff, and all in the UW community are welcome to participate!

Details of the 2024 DEI Forum:

• When: April 30, 12-4 PM; and May 1, 9 AM-2 PM
• Where: Zoom
• Registration link forthcoming.

DEI Forum Community Commitments

• What happens here stays here. 
• What’s learned here leaves here.  
• Be open to experiencing some discomfort.  
• Take the time you need to care for yourself.
• Listen to understand, not to respond.  
• Be aware of the space you are taking up and your identities and positional power.  
• Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions. 
• We don’t expect to always agree.  
• Speak your own experience (“I” statements) and participate to the fullest of your ability.
• Respectfully challenge one another, but share the space.  
• Assume positive intent when listening. 
• When speaking, recognize impact is more important than intent.  
• Recognize that multiple truths exist.  
• Expect and accept non-closure.
• Be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow participants. 

Alert the DEI Forum planning team if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of these Community Commitments, even if seemingly small.

*Adapted from the UW-IT DEI Community of Practice and the Foster School DEI Community of Practice

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