Inclusive education

Inclusive education has become part of the global agenda, linked to the need to transform education systems around the world to provide equal opportunities and participation for all children and young people. Due to the wide scope of evidence on inclusive education within the scientific and professional community, there is not a full consensus on a unique definition. The understanding of inclusive education has been varying according with contextual, cultural, historical, and methodological aspects (Florian, 2017). For the purposes of the I CO-COPE project, three dimensions have been identified in which the concept of Inclusive Education can be defined (Silveira-Maia, M. et al., 2025).  

Ethics and values dimension 

Inclusive education is seen as a human right and moral imperative, closely tied to democracy, participation, and equity (Silveira-Maia & Santos, 2020). It aims to promote social justice by creating a just and equitable society that values diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, regardless of disability, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, or religion (Bhugra, 2016, p. 336; Haug, 2017). 

Policies dimension 

Countries that have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), have different national policies for implementing inclusive education. However, inclusive education generally involves the provision of the following key principles (Article 24 UN-CRPD): 

• Access to education for all means creating a common learning environment for all students in their local community  

• Quality education means diversifying strategies and supports to engage all students. 

These principles are reflected in the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education's (2015) definition, which states that “inclusive education systems aim to ensure all learners [...] provided with meaningful, high-quality educational opportunities in their local community, alongside their friends and peers” (European Agency, 2015, p.1). 

Practice and measurement dimension 

In practice, inclusive education means to identify and reduce barriers to education for all learners, “so that they have access to, are present and participate in and achieve optimal academic and social outcomes from school” (Slee, 2018, p.2). 

On the one hand, this means that inclusive education reflects a process-focused perspective seeing it as a never-ending search to find better ways of responding to diversity (Ainscow, 2020). On the other hand, inclusive education reflects a students-focused perspective ranging from learner’s presence at school, to the placement of students with and without special educational needs in the same classroom, to equal participation in school activities, up to making academic and social progress.

Click here to see a visualisation of all three dimensions.