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The application of technology to higher education is contributing in many ways to create a highly adaptable, inclusive learning environment for all. This study intends to analyze the role of technology facilitation in creating an inclusive learning environment in the higher education institutions (HEIs), which would connect multi-ethnic students and academics effectively in the Sri Lankan context. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to explore how technology facilitates inclusive learning in HEIs.

Based on the qualitative research approach, this study generated data from 30 undergraduates and 10 academics from 5 national universities in Sri Lanka to evaluate the effectiveness of technological facilitation in promoting inclusive learning. The data were then thematically analyzed using NVivo 10.

The nature of technology facilitation in HEIs and influencing factors such as the internet, search engines, mobile apps and software, cost involved, upgraded knowledge, time efficiency and technological devices. Further, the factors contribute to the HEIs and the benefits realized, such as information gathering, time-saving, cost reduction, information sharing, connective communication, easy learning and online services. On the other hand, challenges such as the involved parties’ resistance to technological change, inadequate infrastructure facilities, lack of technical knowledge, negative perceptions and behaviors, technical failures and health issues will also be assessed.

Implications for policy and practice include a thorough understanding of the nature of technology facilitation in an inclusive environment. The researcher has recommended some strategies and mechanisms to the policymakers that will guide them to use technology as a tool to enhance the inclusive learning practices within HEIs.

This paper presents an original review and it contextualizes the technology facilitations in respect of the inclusive learning environment in HEIs.

With the increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand, the unfamiliar living and educational environments are barriers and challenges for immigrant children in inclusive schools. This is because schools are not well equipped to respond to the challenges faced by these children and their parents. At the same time, on the students' side, their parents are grappling with unfamiliar educational and social systems, as well as a language barrier. Although inclusion has been defined by the international declaration, The Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education, 1994, to ensure access to quality education for all children, national inclusion policies are still only slowly incorporating children from different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. This study is based on VUCA circumstances and aims to find out what the perceptions of teachers and marginalised students are about the future of inclusive education. A case study was used as an approach to obtaining information in a primary school in a province in the Northeastern region of Thailand with a high density of immigrant workers. Results of the study indicate that changes must be made by policymakers, stakeholders, schools and teachers if classrooms with marginalised students can be truly inclusive.

In this article, we highlight ways in which disability critical race theory (DisCrit) (Annamma et al., 2013), inclusive education and community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be used within professional development schools (PDS) to provide students with disabilities with more access to inclusive classrooms. At a grade 4–6 elementary school, we developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms. We conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model. Findings suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice. This study can inform tailored professional development efforts to improve educators’ inclusive practices.

We conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model.

The findings of this study suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice.

This study can inform tailored professional development efforts aiming to improve educators’ inclusive practices.

We developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms.

This study aims to provide the thresholds of inequality that should not be exceeded if gender inclusive education is to enhance gender inclusive formal economic participation in sub-Saharan Africa.

The empirical evidence is based on the generalised method of moments and data from 42 countries during the period 2004-2014.

The following findings are established. First, inclusive tertiary education unconditionally promotes gender economic inclusion, while the interaction between tertiary education and inequality is unfavourable to gender economic inclusion. Second, a Gini coefficient that nullifies the positive incidence of inclusive tertiary education on female labour force participation is 0.562. Second, the Gini coefficient and Palma ratio that crowd-out the negative unconditional effects of inclusive tertiary education on female unemployment are 0.547 and 6.118, respectively. Third, a 0.578 Gini coefficient, a 0.680 Atkinson index and a 6.557 Palma ratio are critical masses that wipe out the positive unconditional effects of inclusive tertiary education on female employment. The findings associated with lower levels of education are not significant.

As the main policy implication, income inequality should not be tolerated above the established thresholds for gender inclusive education to promote gender inclusive formal economic participation. Other implications are discussed in the light of sustainable development goals.

This study complements the existing literature by providing inequality thresholds that should not be exceeded for gender inclusive education to promote the involvement of women in the formal economic sector.

This study analyses the barriers and facilitators for the educational inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the perspective of their teachers.

A qualitative methodology was applied, specifically a multiple case study from which 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers who had worked previously with students with ASD. The participants were Spanish teachers from different educational stages (from early childhood education to baccalaureate) and with different roles (ordinary classroom teachers and support teachers).

The results show that collaboration amongst teachers, their attitudes, the way of understanding the supports, the creation of collaboration between students and the organisation of both the school and the classroom are important for the inclusion of students with ASD. The analyses and discussion of the facilitators for the inclusion of these students are especially relevant, since they provide useful guidance for teachers who want to respond to the right of these students to an inclusive education.

The limitations and future research lines of this study are related to the logic of amplitude and depth, respectively. Regarding amplitude, the authors highlighted the importance of gathering the voices of professionals committed to the development of more inclusive practices; however, the authors also identified the need to expand the listening to the voices of teachers who do not have such experience. This raises a possible future research line: to explore how to reach teachers with no experience in inclusive education in order to contribute to the transformation of their practice.

There is extensive knowledge within the classrooms, which the authors aimed to demonstrate in this study, with the hope that others can learn from it. The obtained results are useful to every teacher who wishes to create an inclusive school. In agreement with the consideration of inclusive education as a process, this investigation identified strategies and resources that facilitate the learning and participation of students with ASD, as well as barriers that must be tackled to advance in this regard.

The authors aimed to contribute to understanding the advances in the development of the right to inclusive education. To this end, the authors gathered the voices of teachers (those from the ordinary classroom and those considered “support teachers”) from regular schools that welcome students with ASD and which had a history of commitment to the development of more inclusive education. There is extensive knowledge within the classrooms, which the authors aimed to demonstrate in this study, with the hope that others can learn from it. The obtained results are useful to every teacher who wishes to create an inclusive school.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate school principals' leadership styles in Cyprus in relation to students' support for special education needs within the context of inclusive education.

The original type of evidence was qualitative empirical research through the examination of four case studies in school organizations with a high number of students with special education needs. Using the interview protocol, data on school principals' leadership styles were collected from school principals and teachers. The empirical development theory method was used to analyze the data.

The findings suggest that in the respective school organizations, a combination of all leadership styles can support the desired outcomes of students with special education needs, thereby promoting the inclusive education aspect in school organizations. However, there was a preference for the entrepreneurial leadership style, which connects the external leadership dimension with school principalship.

These findings could assist in shaping a specific educational policy that includes professional development for school principals in entrepreneurship in order to support students with special education needs. Furthermore, the results could be compared to those in other contexts where school principals' leadership styles and practices are promoted in relation to the support of students with special education needs.

Inclusive education (IE) comes to the fore when international development frameworks such as the Education for All (EFA) movement (1990), and, in particular, the Salamanca Statement (1994) are considered. The Statement portrays “mainstreaming” children with disabilities as an integral part of national education plans and asserts that establishing regular schools with inclusive orientation is the most effective means to combat discriminatory attitudes (UNESCO & Ministry of Education and Science, Spain, 1994). This wave has crested worldwide, and Bhutan and Japan are not exceptions. The overall objective of this study is to reexamine socio-cultural dimensions of “IE” by explicating voices on the ground. This chapter describes how IE has been promulgated in the two countries while forming culturally, socially, and locally fitted policies, and documents the dynamics, challenges, and complexities of IE. The results indicate that while both countries followed similar dynamics in the development of IE policies, progressing from “segregation” to “integration” before reaching “inclusion,” different implementation processes have led to divergent forms of IE, and thus the two nations exhibit heterogeneity in their interpretations of IE. Reflecting the voices of local teachers on the ground, the study illustrates the importance of encompassing societal contexts vis-à-vis exploring global issues such as IE.

Inclusion has gained incremental attention in Lebanon especially since it has been associated with quality education, being the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) as declared by the United Nations. Efforts have been made by public and private institutions to ensure that learners with disabilities get inclusive education, and progress has been noted despite several challenges further aggravated by the pandemic and the financial crises. This chapter presents a close examination at the condition of inclusion in Lebanon as it thoroughly studies all elements of inclusion with the assessment of challenges alongside the discussion of feasible solutions.

For teachers to fully enact pedagogy rooted in equity and inclusion, they must have access to purposeful systems and tools supporting proactive and collaborative planning built explicitly to center the needs of those historically denied full access to learning. This chapter takes on the historical injustices that have been perpetuated within public education in the United States since its inception and presents practical tools and systems (rooted in research and refined in the field) that can promote more equitable day-to-day teaching and learning in classrooms.

This chapter discusses Icek Ajzen’s contribution of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to understandings of teacher attitudes and actions in relation to inclusive practices. The discussion explores why some educators are successful in including students with disabilities in regular classrooms and others are not and considers the role of educators’ attitudes in determining their actions when they teach. The chapter proceeds to discuss the role of TPB in teacher education that supports inclusive practices and also identifies some of the drawbacks of the existing research on attitudes within the field of inclusive education. The chapter highlights how TPB theory continues to have significant relevance in a range of areas related to teacher and inclusive education.