Inclusive Education in Practice: Strategies for Supporting Diverse Learners

Dear Colleagues,

Education has long functioned as a crucial mechanism for enabling individuals to access opportunities that facilitate their full participation in society. It remains a fundamental factor in advancing social inclusion. In the present context, however, social exclusion has once again become a central concern in many parts of the world. Large numbers of people are compelled to leave their homelands due to limited opportunities, armed conflict, violence, and the impacts of climate change. At the same time, increasing social polarization has reignited both sentiments and realities of intolerance towards differences and minorities, whether defined by social, ethnic, gender, or religious identity. In recent years, reactionary movements have gained ground across diverse national contexts. Despite the considerable social progress achieved over recent decades, racist, intolerant, and anti-diversity social movements are acquiring renewed strength within societies. Schools constitute a particularly sensitive arena in which these dynamics are manifest. Yet, they also represent a vital space for integration, as history has shown. Educational institutions have played a pivotal role in promoting values such as coexistence, democracy, and active participation, while simultaneously fostering the development of individuals’ critical thinking capacities. 

Aim and scope of this Special Issue

This Special Issue highlights educational practices and actions that promote inclusive education. Authors are encouraged to submit research articles that provide evidence of practices and interventions aimed at enhancing learning outcomes for students in vulnerable situations, in educational settings (formal, informal and non-formal education) and topics (literacy, numeracy, mathematics, etc.). These circumstances may include socioeconomic status, ethnicity, refugee status, or other sociocultural factors, as well as individual conditions like disabilities. Scientific evidence aimed at providing examples of successful educational actions for teachers to improve their teaching (and their training) to reverse inequalities are encouraged.

Suggested themes

Within this context, a non-exhaustive list of themes for this Special Issue is presented below:

• Inclusive pedagogical practices;
• Education and migration;
• Addressing socio-economic inequalities in education;
• Countering social polarization thought education;
• Climate change and education;
• Refugees and education;
• Families, communities, and inclusive education;
• Dialogic learning and inclusion;
• Successful educational actions to reverse inequalities;
• Teacher training and professional development for educational inclusion.

Both quantitative and qualitative studies, along with those using mixed-method approaches and those grounded in various theoretical perspectives, will be accepted.

When submitting your manuscript, you may choose to join our Special Issue in “Inclusive Education in Practice: Strategies for Supporting Diverse Learners”.

Prof. Dr. Javier Díez-Palomar
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind 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 1800 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.

• inclusive education
• successful educational actions
• reverse inequalities