Family Experiences and Challenges in Special and Inclusive Education

Dear Colleagues,

Families occupy a central position in special and inclusive education, as they support children’s learning, participation, well-being, advocacy, and transitions across different stages of life. In recent years, international educational policy and practice have increasingly emphasised inclusive, rights-based, and family-centred approaches. However, families’ everyday experiences, needs, resources, and challenges are not always sufficiently represented in research, policy development, or professional practice. This is particularly important in diverse family contexts where special educational needs and/or disability may concern children from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood, as well as parents, siblings, or other family members with disabilities.

At a global level, families continue to navigate complex educational, social, and community systems, often facing barriers related to access, participation, collaboration with professionals, transitions, psychosocial support, and social inclusion. At the same time, contemporary developments create new opportunities for strengthening family–school partnerships, promoting family quality of life, using digital technologies, developing inclusive services, and advancing more participatory forms of educational decision-making. Research in this area is therefore timely and significant, as it can contribute to more equitable and responsive educational systems, while also informing policy, professional practice, counselling, and family support.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances related to family experiences, needs, resources, and challenges in special and inclusive education. We welcome contributions that examine families’ perspectives on inclusive education and inclusive practice, home–school and family–professional collaboration, psychosocial well-being, family resilience, family quality of life, transitions across educational stages and into adult life, and access to inclusive learning and community environments. We particularly encourage empirical, theoretical, review, and practice-oriented papers that adopt interdisciplinary, international, rights-based, and family-centred perspectives.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Family experiences of special educational needs and/or disability across the life course
2. Parents’ perspectives on inclusive education and inclusive practice
3. Family–school collaboration and family–professional partnerships
4. Family-centred approaches in special and inclusive education
5. Family quality of life, parental stress, resilience, and coping
6. Siblings’ experiences and roles in families of children or adults with SEND
7. Parents with disabilities and their experiences in educational and community contexts
8. Transitions from early childhood to school, adolescence, higher education, employment, and adult life
9. Inclusive education, participation, belonging, and student/family voice
10. Counselling, psychosocial support, and mental health needs of families
11. Digital technologies, accessibility, and family support in inclusive education
12. Social support networks, community inclusion, and interagency collaboration
13. Cultural, social, and economic inequalities affecting families of persons with SEND
14. Rights-based, ethical, and policy perspectives on family participation and inclusion
15. Innovative practices, intervention programmes, and case studies supporting families in inclusive contexts.

Dr. Assimina Tsibidaki
Dr. Vana Chiou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• family experiences
• special and inclusive education
• special educational needs and disability
• family–school collaboration
• family quality of life
• family-centred practice
• parental stress and resilience
• transitions to adulthood
• psychosocial support
• rights-based inclusion