This article reports on an ethnographically-informed case study of a Canadian university that is experiencing growth and systems change through three initiatives: internationalization, intercultural education, and Indigenization. The article describes the goals of internationalization and “interculturalization” (a term coined at the university) at the site of the case study. The study then examines points of convergence and tensions between internationalization and interculturalization and emerging Indigenization initiatives. The work draws upon conceptualizations of “imaginaries” in higher education, and identifies that plural imaginaries exist within a single institution, creating opportunities for convergence but also over–reach by particular actors. We conclude that imaginaries are a useful conceptual tool for understanding the broad-based goals of higher education and identifying their varied rationales and also for understanding intra-institutional dynamics.

This article reports on ways in which United Nations human rights treaties can be used as a normative framework for evaluating program outcomes. In this article, we conceptualize a human rights-based approach to program evaluation and locate this approach within the broader evaluation literature. The article describes how a rights-based framework can be used as an aspirational set of indicators for program evaluations to promote activities that align with internationally agreed-upon human rights norms. We then describe a case study of the evaluation through which this method was developed, including its sampling design, methodology, and findings. The United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) inclusive education evaluation described highlighted the need for conceptual clarity around what inclusive education is, and the importance of contextualized innovation toward meeting the educational rights of children with disabilities. Human rights perspectives and evaluation designs can help create such clarity, but should also be used with care.

Education policy is entering an uncertain future within an indeterminate form of globalization. The sustainability discourse of the last two decades is challenged by global inequality, large-scale migrations, geo-political rivalries driven by conflicts over trade and technology, a planet-wide virus that slowed the global economy, and an irreversible climate change crisis. There is a new urgency to reexamine the educational policy enterprise, its theories and debates, agencies and organizations, successes and failures, borrowings and practices, and how historical trajectories will shape emerging educational policy challenges. The gap between education policy and practice widens, creating favorable circumstances for some and untenable educational conditions for others. The selections in this Handbook illustrate some of the most significant educational policy episodes of the last decade. These not only serve as a guide for policy makers and scholars of educational policy but also explore key tensions that have shaped them, including global interconnectedness and localism, universalism and pluralism, and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion.

This article traces the shutdown of large-scale assessment in two countries - the United States and Denmark - as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These two countries, which have complicated histories with large-scale assessment and inclusion of diverse students, were forced to adjust their testing agendas during 2020. This article seeks to explore what divergent and convergent pathways Denmark and the United States could take in regard to large-scale assessment, particularly in regard to educational inclusion and diversity. Large-scale assessment regimes at once delimit the imaginary of inclusion and actively promote segregation and ability-based tracking, but at the same time represent a space for conceptual inclusion in educational achievement. Given these complexities, we provide policy scenarios on assessments in a post-pandemic world that could hold the potential of transcending the paradoxes presented by the alignment of the elitist educational agendas of assessments on the one hand, and the agenda of inclusion on the other hand. To do so, we chronicle this recent history and then evaluate four future scenarios for the two countries through the lens of educational values and complex systems theory.

This article presents the adaptation of a screening tool to help young persons with disabilities understand what they may need to do in in order to move closer to meaningful work. Using critical capabilities approach, we developed a toolkit to support the transition process from home, school, or other setting to formal or informal employment in Bhutan. Community Inclusion Coordinators were recruited to mentor 40 participants to gain confidence, appropriate work skills to get closer to being work-ready. We also evaluated the efficacy and utility of the toolkit which revealed that some of the participants valued having honest and open conversations about personal and professional issues.

Disability-inclusive education and development have become priorities for global governance organizations over the past decade and have thus introduced new complexities to existing development narratives. One reason for this is the long-standing discourse of “disability models” (medical, social, and cultural models) most often found in disability studies discourses. This study demonstrates that individuals with disabilities and their advocates navigate education and development opportunities through the lens of multiple models simultaneously. In this article, we introduce the philosophical theory of dialectics as a way of understanding how seemingly competing models might simultaneously inform the actions that individuals take in relation to disability-inclusive education and development. We present three minicases—two from teachers and one from a youth with a disability—drawn from a recent 3-year project in Bhutan. These case examples demonstrate how dialectical thinking is often present in education and development initiatives.

This article provides an overview of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an educational strategy designed to provide curricular access to a wide diversity of children, including children with disabilities. UDL builds on principles originally conceptualized in accessible architecture and focuses on the various ways that curriculum can be presented, engaged with, and responded to by children. Like many educational strategies, UDL has “traveled” from its origins in the United States. This article traces how UDL has traveled through the lens of policy borrowing and provides two national case examples of its implementation in international settings.

This article examines the limitations of developing youth programs through solely a human capital framework. While there is undoubtedly a strong connection between skills development and potential economic opportunity, our findings reveal that the story of youth who manage to navigate difficult economic environments is complex and nuanced. The article interprets findings through a critical capabilities lens. Its findings indicate that, beyond skills, youth leveraged microcapital gifts from families, connected with each other and broader social networks for new opportunities, and supported one another emotionally. Participants’ stories demonstrate that converting youth capabilities into functioning in their environment requires varied forms of support and networking beyond simple skills development. The article considers implications for youth development programs and research.

As more universities internationalize, interest in engagement between international and domestic students has increased. University initiatives to bring students together often adopt a deficit approach dependent on international students’ “adjustment” to the host culture, overlooking the need for adjustment to be a two-way exchange and the role of the institution in this process. Focusing on educational group work as a salient site of cross-national interaction, this study draws on focus group data to explore how institutional habitus, or unwritten rules, are enacted at a large U.S. university. Findings indicated that domestic students were better socialized to understand the habitus of the institution and thus tend to take charge in group work. In contrast, international students were seen as linguistically and academically deficient and are relegated to passive roles in a group. Important implications for practitioners and scholars of U.S. higher education are discussed.

This article aims to conceptualise contemporary understandings of 'inclusive development'. The article draws upon two conceptual models: plural/universal rights (Megret, 2008, 10.1353/hrq.0.0000) and social-relational inclusion (Gupta & Vegelin, 2016, ) to demonstrate how 'inclusion' is understood concerning economic, social, and human development. The article then draws upon these disparate, yet interconnected understandings of inclusive development and maps four contemporary inclusive development approaches (participation of stakeholders, representational politics, social protection, and economic redistribution). The purpose of this mapping is to provide context for how the singular word 'inclusion' can be used to pursue multiple desired outcomes, some of which may conflict with one another.

Inclusive education is a core initiative of United Nations organizations and national governments around the world. In this article, we chronicle the development of a 2019 inclusive education policy in Lesotho by examining the role of disabled persons organizations (DPOs) and their policy advocacy. A standpoint epistemological approach is used, relaying the direct experiences of DPO leaders. We frame these events through political settlement theory, which states that when there is a policy conflict, settlements are drawn between powerful actors (governments) and those advocating for change. This typically occurs when the political or economic price of ignoring or suppressing advocacy groups becomes too high for governments to bear. In this study, a DPO successfully advocated for a new policy through media campaigns, direct engagement of government officials, leveraging donor support, and arguing for accountability around international treaty commitments. The political settlement of DPOs and the government in Lesotho is instructive about new ways in which inclusive education policies are being developed in the wake of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and increased DPO activism.

Internationalization of higher education is a worldwide phenomenon. Institutions and sectors are rushing to 'internationalize' as a way of maintaining relevance in an era of globalized education. Scholars of internationalization have identified gaps in how internationalization is conceptualized, who makes decisions related to internationalization, and who participates. One way of addressing these gaps is through 'inclusive internationalization'. In this chapter, we review relevant literature and conceptualize inclusive internationalization across three dimensions: theoretical, representational, and participatory. We explain and provide examples for each of these dimensions. Finally, we draw these dimensions together to provide a definition of inclusive internationalization as a collaborative cross-sectional process encompassing plural voices at the institution and an interconnected world. We further contend that the aim of inclusive internationalization is to leverage internationalization to address injustice and enhance interconnectedness to the benefit of its diverse societies and natural world.

This study reports on findings from 25 semi-structured, individual interviews with participants with visual, hearing, or mobility disabilities in India focusing on stigmatization and resilience, and how they are constructed within Indian sociocultural contexts. Participants’ experiences of disability and stigmatization were alleviated or exacerbated by sociocultural issues, including socioeconomic status, caste, and gender hierarchy. A lack of family support and access to education further reinforced stigmatization. The case from India underscores the importance of addressing these intersectional issues, as well as stigmatization and resilience, to comprehensively support individuals with disabilities. Implications for practice, disability policies, theories, and research are discussed.

Student mobility has become a key feature in the drive toward internationalization of higher education in the United States. International students contribute to the academic culture of universities, yet, often face isolation, discrimination, and experience difficulties transitioning to new environments. As a result, conational networks have formed to provide support to international students in foreign institutions. This article examines the different ways membership in a conational support group mediated international students’ experiences in a university campus. Contrary to theories that suggest insularity such as fortressing and cultural enclaves, our findings suggest that conational groups are sites of creative potential where group members are consistently forging complex assemblages between norms that are familiar and experiences that are new. Although significant personal transformations ensue as a result of these assemblages, they are occurring in a setting and a pace that is determined by group members and perceived to be safe. We argue that conational groups should not be conceived as static spaces that reproduce cultural norms, but rather as sites of contestation and cultural negotiation. Based on these findings, we question whether “integration” should be a guiding institutional logic for international student engagement, suggesting instead an approach based on the concept of “inclusion.”

The aim of this study was to better understand the gaps between policy and practice in inclusive education for the Republic of Serbia. The study compared the academic achievement in Mathematics of comparable students with mild intellectual disabilities (MID) in the fifth and sixth grade who attend typical elementary schools and special schools. A total of 249 students participated in the study. All students were either 11 or 12 years old at the time of the study and were matched by ability, based on local educational and psychological assessments. Results indicated that students with mild intellectual disabilities who attend special schools scored significantly higher on mathematics achievements in comparison to their peers with similar disabilities in regular schools. Although the aim of the Republic of Serbia's new education policy focuses on inclusion, preliminary research indicates that students may be integrated (not included) and that regular classroom practice may not be supporting students with disabilities. A closer look at strategies that appear successful in special schools (such as adapted teaching strategies, work in small groups of students, and continuous individualised support of teachers) may provide instructional insights for newly included students in Serbia.

Student mobility is a key aspect of internationalization of higher education. Within the broad population of students who have the opportunity to study abroad, however, there are particular groups who are under-represented. In the United States, for example, approximately 11% of undergraduate students in postsecondary degree-granting institutions have disclosed that they have a disability, yet only 8.8% of those who study abroad disclosed to having a disability to their home institutions. To better understand why under-representation may be occurring, this article examined study abroad through Schwanke, Smith, and Edyburn’s “A3” model of inclusive education, which highlights efforts of institutions related to advocacy, accommodations, and accessibility. Findings indicate that institutions—even those with strong reputations in study abroad for students with disabilities—are heavily focused on ensuring appropriate accommodations for students and only beginning to explore the design of programs through the lens of accessibility. Implications for international education units, such as the role of partnership building and commitment to Universal Design principles, are discussed.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect a contemporary vision for global development, building upon the successes and challenges of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that expired in 2015. On a broad and conceptual level, the SDGs were set forth based on an agreed-upon global ‘aim for a combination of economic development, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion’ (Sachs, 2012, p. 2206). It was the first time that development goals integrated social, economic, and ecological dimensions within a singular framework (Griggs, 2013). The goals themselves were also developed differently as a result of a more broadly consultative process than the previous MDGs. Specifically, the SDGs were negotiated in open forum with civil society, advocacy, governmental, and scientific representatives present. This process differed from the MDG process, criticised for being overly focused on so-called ‘expert opinion’ and in which negotiations were conducted largely behind closed doors (Brown, 2016). A key feature of the SDGs is the focus on the term ‘inclusion’. The declaration and goals themselves contain 40 mentions of the word ‘inclusive’ ( UNGA, 2015b), yet the term is undefined. In most cases, the term refers to ‘all’ – all people who have the right to access the opportunities outlined in the goals. In this chapter we draw upon two recent conceptualisations of ‘rights’ and ‘inclusion’ as a way of understanding the evolution of these concepts from the MDGs to SDGs, and as a way to identify future directions for inclusive education in the SDG era, especially in relation to children with disabilities. For the remainder of the chapter, we outline the ‘plural-relational’ approach to inclusive education that draws upon legal and development scholarship to conceptualize inclusive education in the SDGs.