Innovative Approaches to Enhance Inclusive Education

Dear Colleagues,

The Salamanca Statement (1994) marked a distinctive shift in understanding of how inclusive education provision might be facilitated across the globe as it moved the focus from only those young people with SEND to the wide range of young people who might require additional support to be successful in learning.  Since the seminal Salamanca Statement (1994), the diversity of the young people within many classrooms globally has continued to increase. This situation can pose ongoing challenges for policymakers who must provide legislation that supports inclusive education systems, for teacher educators preparing the future workforce in schools and for teachers who must provide relevant learning opportunities for all.

Whilst at one time an aspiration towards ‘inclusion’ was viewed as the panacea for the challenge of increasing diversity within classrooms, in recent years the definition – and indeed the usefulness of the term ‘inclusion’ has been challenged (Slee, 2011; 2018). In response to the challenge posed by Slee (2011; 2018), researchers have continued to undertake research to develop a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of classrooms, the intersectional identities that young people bring to their learning and the competences required by teachers for their future careers.

The recent global pandemic has highlighted ongoing societal inequalities which continue to impact young people’s experiences in education. The pandemic has resulted in new perspectives on what it means to be human, what it means to be part of a learning community and the importance for all individuals to be welcomed into the community no matter what age you are from the youngest to the oldest member of society.  Understanding the importance of inclusion within a welcoming community has resulted in new research approaches that explore how to value and embrace the diversity of our education populations and the need for education at all levels to support the inclusion of all more effectively.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• Innovative approaches to enhancing the inclusive practices in educational provision
• Professional collaboration, how to manage:
• the complexity of a classroom
• multi-professional dilemmas (language, power relations, roles)
• identifying one’s own role in a team
• the creation of knowledge when dealing with open, complex problems

-(Professional) Teacher agency, how to manage:

• novel approaches in teacher education
• ability to critical and reflective thinking
• intentional agency/teacher leadership

-Sense of belonging:

• Student perspective: how a student feels their position in their community, multiple voices
• Teacher perspective: how are teachers able to create the feeling of being a welcomed and valuable member of your community; students’ intersectional identities - not to identify only one identity
• School staff members: how to be able to value all colleagues, balancing power relations (e.g. between teachers and teaching assistants)

With this call for abstracts, the editors would like to invite responses that explore innovative research on inclusive education including school culture, leadership, inclusive practice across all sectors of education, development of new teacher education initiatives at all stages of teacher career; inter- and intra-professional initiatives that enhance inclusion and new philosophical understandings of inclusion. The editors particularly welcome responses where the research has been undertaken in a co-participatory manner with key stakeholders within the process.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Submission Deadlines:
1. Expression of interest with an abstract (200 words) for articles: 15 February 2023
2. Submission of full article: 31 August 2023

Dr. Suvi Lakkala
Prof. Dr. Mhairi C. Beaton
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• inclusive education
• inclusive school culture and practices
• professional collaboration and teacher agency
• school leadership
• sense of belonging
• student perspective