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Despite an enormous growth of the literature and research on inclusive education during the last two and a half decades, theory and practice on inclusive education are still inconsistent across the education systems worldwide. It is defined, conceptualised and practised differently across diverse socioeconomic contexts and groups of scholars and practitioners. While some promote educating all students in a mainstream classroom setting irrespective of their abilities and physical, emotional and behavioural challenges, others emphasise improving the overall quality of education for all children from diverse backgrounds. Given that education is a multidimensional social enterprise, promoting a single perspective at the cost of others or merely emphasising the role of schools and teachers may hardly result in improved education outcomes and guarantee equal learning opportunities for all. This chapter will critically review the relevant theory and discuss the different approaches to inclusive education. Then it will discuss the potential challenges to inclusive education across the education systems. Finally, the chapter will offer an inclusive way forward for improving the quality of education for all children, irrespective of their backgrounds, in mainstream schools in multicultural contexts.

This chapter provides an overview of the inclusive education policies in Ghana and how these policies were developed toward fulfilling the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Number 4. We start the chapter by introducing Ghana's demographics and awareness in disability, as well as the historical background in inclusive education. Next, we address the current state of Ghana's inclusive education by sharing the current policies and infrastructure that transforms special education schools into resource centers, promotes a learner-friendly environment, and serves as the legal foundation for private and public schools to implement inclusive education for all children. We further discuss the challenges imposed by the recent wave of the COVID pandemic on inclusive education, and the initiatives Ghana leadership enacted to provide a continuum of inclusive services for all children. We then conclude the chapter with implications and recommendations to stakeholders.

Inclusive education can be viewed as an ongoing active process or journey that is impacted by changes in policy, practices, and values (Anderson & Boyle, 2020). This “journey toward inclusion” is not always an easy undertaking, but rather a progression that requires modification to systems, structures, and functioning in schools. Nauru, a small Pacific republic situated in the Micronesian central Pacific Ocean, has worked in partnership with Australian education providers since 2011 to improve educational learning experiences for all Nauruan students. More recently, initiatives by the Nauru Government resulted in the commissioning of a national project to develop a Nauru policy on inclusive education and also to deliver professional development for teachers that would be needed to support inclusion. Inclusive education staff at the University of England, Australia, guided the development of the project which culminated in the Nauru Inclusive Education Policy and Guidelines (2017) (Page, 2018). From this policy, a series of workshops were delivered on unpacking the policy directions, guidelines, and roles and responsibilities for teaching staff in Nauru. This chapter describes the university staff who are working in collaboration with Nauruan teachers in order to develop their capacity to create inclusive classrooms. In doing so, we embraced approaches that incorporated culturally responsive practices into our work, using the framework of Ekereri (educational approaches that embody the core values of Nauruan culture) into our practices. With this chapter, we hope to further the understanding of how contextual factors influence the collaboration and implementation of educational partnerships between culturally distinctive groups of people.

In this chapter the authors explore what it means to be an inclusive school leader through a discourse that focuses on “out of the box” approaches in preparing future school leaders to push the envelope of inclusive leadership practice. The purpose of this chapter is to (a) define inclusive education and leadership; (b) describe prevailing theoretical frameworks for leadership in inclusive education and build on emerging theories of inclusive psychology and inclusive pedagogy; (c) identify promising practices for leadership in inclusive education; (d) identify emerging understandings of leadership roles in inclusive education; and (e) suggest recommendations for policy, practice, and leadership preparation. In both the USA and the UK, contrasting and polarizing discourses that focus leaders’ attention on attainment and performance for pupils and appear to compete with the leadership role in including (i.e., effectively educating) those students who are known to have achievement gaps (e.g., those with disabilities). Alternative perspectives are offered that frame leadership for inclusive education in terms of broader concepts such as “leadership for learning.”

European-level debates regarding inclusion have most often focussed upon meeting the needs of learners with special educational needs (SEN) which occur as a result of learning difficulty or disability. In most European countries, the conceptualisation of educational inclusion has grown out of discussions surrounding specialist segregated provision, integration and mainstreaming (Donnelly, V. J. (Ed.) (2010). Inclusive education in action: Project framework and rationale. Odense, Denmark: European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education). Inclusive education has – until relatively recently – been most often interpreted and understood as primarily concerned with efforts to meet the needs of this group of learners within mainstream and not separate educational contexts.

This chapter considers the differing and constantly changing conceptions of inclusion in countries. It draws on recent European Agency work with member countries that identifies policy and practice developments around inclusion indicating a move in thinking from SEN to special needs education (SNE), then inclusive education towards inclusive education systems.

This chapter discusses the current state of inclusive education in Azerbaijan and builds connections to the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). It focuses on Azerbaijan's progress toward SDG4 targets, such as early childhood development, general education, and pedagogical higher education. In this article, the history of inclusive education in Azerbaijan is described, relevant education policies are reviewed, definitions of inclusiveness and inclusive education are provided, compared with international standards, and the main challenges are pointed out. Moreover, the chapter discusses the challenges of the reform process and inclusive education during pandemics and war crises.

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), based on the principle of leaving no one behind, ensures that equitable and quality education, as well as inclusion, are available to all, promoting opportunities for those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable including persons with disabilities (PWDs). The Indonesian government has demonstrated a commitment to the rights of PWDs in education. In this chapter, the history, the present, and the future of inclusive education will be presented following the master plan for the development of inclusive education. Strategies including accessibility, reasonable accommodation, and collaboration will be discussed as well as the challenges in implementing inclusive education.

The origin of this chapter lies in a presentation by a colleague whose work I admire. Drawing on their extensive experience, they have developed guidance for schools to support children with special educational needs. Their conclusion was that teachers could adopt an eclectic approach, utilizing and combining different interventions as appropriate. The notion of utilizing different teaching approaches to facilitate inclusive education seemed accepted as unproblematic. However, I began to wonder about what happens when teaching approaches are based on conflicting views about the nature of how children learn. This led me to consider a more fundamental question. Do teachers’ own beliefs about how knowledge is created and how children develop (their personal epistemological beliefs) have an impact on their practice and children’s experiences in inclusive classrooms? Answering this question leads to the ethical issue of whether all ways of thinking about how children learn are compatible with teaching in inclusive schools, and the consequences that arise in seeking an answer.

This chapter presents a recently completed study that focused on how classroom teachers in Nigeria are developing inclusive practice. Qualitative data were generated through the use of semi-structured (non-participant) classroom observations and follow-up interviews with 12 teachers. The framework for participation (Black-Hawkins, 2014; Black-Hawkins, 2010) was used as a theoretical framework to guide the process of data generation, data analysis and interpretation of the research findings. Data findings illustrate how a mixture of beliefs and knowledge influence what teachers do in classrooms. Although both factors interact and influence teachers’ actual practice, it also emerged that the most important factor influencing teachers’ actions is the teacher’s understanding of what learning is and the processes through which learning can effectively take place for all children.