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This book offers policy makers, teachers and teacher trainers a framework for understanding inclusive education in the developing world.  With a major focus on South Africa, it argues that planning for inclusive education must rupture old theories, assumptions, models and tools - including a recognition of how the history of special education has psychologized failure - with the mainstream taking ownership of the transformation to a fairer system. The author contends that for inclusive education to take hold, policy makers need to contextualize the curriculum to the needs of the developing country, and to place the vulnerable and working class demographic at the heart of the planning process - recognizing that the performative culture of developed countries will marginalize and alienate this majority group. Providing practical guidelines on developing full-service schools that can cater for learners who experience a range of barriers to learning, Inclusive Education in South Africa and the Developing World will be of great value to all those with an interest in education, inclusion and social justice both within South Africa and beyond.

This paper focuses on a major challenge facing education systems around the world, that of finding ways of including all children in schools. In economically poorer countries this is mainly about the millions of children who are not able to attend formal education (UNESCO, 2015). Meanwhile, in wealthier countries many young people leave school with no worthwhile qualifications, whilst others are placed in special provision away from mainstream education and some choose to drop out since the lessons seem irrelevant (OECD, 2012). Faced with these challenges, there is evidence of an increased interest in the idea of making education more inclusive and equitable. However, the field remains confused as to the actions needed in order to move policy and practice forward.

PurposeThis article presents a model based on a review of international and European policy and current European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education work on school leadership for inclusive education. The model aims to support analysis of the policy context and interactions between the structures and processes at different levels to ensure effective support for inclusive school leadership and development of appropriate competences. Key issues addressing competences for inclusive school leadership, support and professional development opportunities for inclusive school leaders and policy frameworks that support inclusive leadership across the whole education system are explored.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports on a current Agency project, Supporting Inclusive School Leadership (SISL), a cross-national project that considers how best to ensure that school leaders meet the needs of all learners in their school communities. The SISL project examines current theories of school leadership together with the core functions of school leaders in participating countries in order to develop a model specifically focused on inclusive school leadership.FindingsAgency projects such as SISL focus on research findings and policy developments that support countries to chart their own course toward a common goal. This process of cross-national working permits member countries with their distinctive national, ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversities to work together on common goals. In this project an ecosystem model of inclusive education was adapted to reflect on the policy context needed to enable school leaders to fulfill the complex responsibilities associated with inclusive school development.Originality/valueAlthough the Agency is strongly associated with the education of children with special educational needs and disabilities, all member countries have the shared vision to support inclusive education systems so that all learners of any age are provided with meaningful, high-quality educational opportunities in their local community. While its projects are firmly rooted in the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, its work is also influenced by the concept of inclusion as promoted in the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4) “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

In recent years, debates on sustainable economic development have highlighted the importance of comprehensive growth especially in developing countries. Inclusive growth is widely seen as a key ingredient for sustainable development. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. The current study examines the level of inclusive growth and sustainable development and association among them in 11 selected developing countries for the year 2008 and 2018. We extract key factors on variables of interest from 7 pillars of inclusive growth level and United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by using the Principal Components Analysis and the Multivariate Analysis. The key results highlight that Turkey and China have achieved highest while Pakistan and Indonesia represent the lowest level of inclusive growth. Similarly, Brazil and Pakistan show the lowest while Cambodia and Thailand hold the highest rank on sustainable development level. The empirical findings show high value of negative correlation coefficients between social inclusion of inclusive growth and prevalence of poverty with life-threatening factors of sustainable development. Similarly, a high positive value between unsatisfactory medical services, education and state transparency of inclusive growth; poverty and its consequences of sustainable development further confirms the robustness of association among variables of interest our. A strong recommendation on improving the inclusive growth as policy strategy is suggested in developing countries to further enhance the sustainable development.

PurposeThe paper makes an endeavour to explore the efficacy of service learning (SL) pedagogy in inculcating the value of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) with a focus on management education in India.Design/methodology/approachThe research methodology comprises a systematic survey of select relevant literature on SL and applying a novel approach to bring out certain key traits of SL initiatives. The paper also tries to decipher how the identified key traits could be regarded as contributing to the ethos of DEI among the learners. Based on insights from the systematic literature review and identified research gaps, an in-depth study of three SL initiatives in India, have been undertaken to demonstrate how implementation of the SL pedagogy in management education creates an impact on the attributes of DEI and inculcates an inclusive mindset.FindingsAlthough the design, process and learning outcomes of SL pedagogy varies depending on the context, there is commonality in the core attributes that emerges from the literature review which has a potential impact on inculcation of the values of inclusion and appreciation of diversity. The select case studies successfully expand on the list of these identified relevant attributes. The findings have also been corroborated by participants' reflection.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is, however, limited in its scope of assessing the impact in creating an inclusive mindset. To gauge whether such impact is pervasive and persists in the long run, one needs to examine if these values are carried forward by the participants in their professional and daily life. It would, therefore, be more meaningful to carry out a primary survey of the participants, who took part in such SL initiatives, to understand whether the values have really been assimilated in the real life. This is outside the scope of this paper but does open the scope for further research.Practical implicationsThe paper would be highly relevant for the accreditation agencies who are increasingly prescribing the role that business schools can and should play towards inculcating the ethos of diversity and inclusion among future business leaders and managers. For the administrators of business schools and other higher education institutions who may be considering how to incorporate the ethos of diversity and inclusion in the curriculum and pedagogy, the paper will provide some direction through the SL route. The detailed exposition of the three SL initiatives will enlighten the administrators or the faculty responsible for designing and delivering any SL programme in other business schools or higher educational institutions as to how to go about developing and delivering such an initiative. To the extent such SL initiatives succeed in leaving a lasting impact on the participants regarding ethos of inclusion and diversity, the business implications in the long run could be immense.Social implicationsThe purpose of the paper by itself establishes its social relevance. The very fact that the paper is focused on SL initiatives that involve social problem-solving approaches through hands-on working on social projects and working with communities the social implications are rather obvious.Originality/valueGiven the paucity of information and analysis on potential fit of SL for fostering DEI especially in developing countries, the present paper contributes to the existing body of literature and aptly fills the void. It builds a theoretical construct relating SL with the traits of DEI and then bridges theory and practice by demonstrating the efficacy of three SL programmes in Indian context to internalise the elements of DEI.

PurposeAs skills need to be changed in a dynamic learning environment, employability depends not just on what people already know but on how well they learn, apply and adapt breaking out their comfort zone. This study explores how students from all backgrounds and teachers can engage with inclusive education without discrimination through pedagogy. The research provides a platform through implication for other international readers of developing countries to implement pedagogies of the Indian context.Design/methodology/approachThis archival research focuses on the topical literature to scrutinize efficient ways to elevate the realization of all learners in inclusive settings. What inclusive pedagogy teaching approaches, focusing on the key competences and sustains learning which are effectual in elevating the academic success of all novices.FindingsEducators need to develop their skills and competency by breaking their comfort zone, and individual recital of every faculty affiliate is a decisive feature in accomplishing quality for inclusive education. An education institution also needs to provide passable facilities to academicians and students in order to adapt and utilize technology efficiently without any discrimination. This is an important method of assisting educators to recognize and investigate using this epistemology in new innovative inclusive teaching pedagogy with technologies in industry 4.0.Research limitations/implicationsThe study momentarily suggests an innovative pedagogy approach for stakeholders and users to be adapted in current digital arena.Originality/valueReview of the concepts can provide valuable pointers for policy makers in other jurisdictions contemplating inclusive education. The issues that are dealt with relate to how all students with and without disability can be engaged in a classroom without discrimination, and development is incentivized using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching pedagogy.

Deaf learners in the Global South struggle to access equitable education, in particular, there are few instances where they can be facilitated in inclusive classrooms. The challenges include a lack of teachers that can sign proficiently, the unavailability of interpreters and few teachers trained in Deaf education. This paper explores the potential and challenges of an approach that aims to facilitate real-time communication between Deaf students and non-signing teachers, by combining speech and language technologies, computer vision, machine translation and 3-D avatars, all underpinned by artificial intelligence. A closed-loop solution is proposed that takes advantage advances in gesture recognition, machine translation and speech and language technologies to allow for communication between Deaf students and hearing teachers, both using their preferred medium of communication. A focus group was held with members of the Deaf community to gauge their interest and concerns about the proposed system. The results revealed a fair level of curiosity and concern. Five major themes emerged: Avatar Effectiveness and Realism; Language and Cultural Considerations; Resource and Cost Concerns; Real-time Translation Challenges and Community Involvement and Feedback. The results revealed important issues concerning bilingual-bicultural access for the hearing teacher and the need for sign language production systems to factor in the nuances of unfamiliar concepts, essentially emulating the role of Deaf Relay Interpreters.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has affected the most deprived communities the hardest and exposed many systemic inequalities, leaving nations vulnerable and destitute. The need for quality education, while heeding to international mandates, including enacting the sustainable development goals (SDG), has become more apparent in promoting equitable and inclusive education for all, which remains a challenge in South Africa with its inherited inequalities. The purpose of this study was to understand how the COVID-19 challenge refocused the commitment of five principals from rural schools in two education districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa to address resurfaced historic inequalities, including digital access and fluency to attain an equitable learning environment. Semi-structured emailed interviews were conducted with the participants. A thematic analysis of their experiences of the pandemic through the lens of flexible learning theory, revealed that teachers and learners often experienced discrimination-related stress, especially with virtual learning approaches, as schools often cannot offer remote services to advance learning. Furthermore, the participants voiced their uncompromising commitment to inclusion while engaging teachers and learners in identifying possible problems and proposing solutions post-COVID-19. Though the current crisis seems to have perpetuated and deepened existing inequalities in disadvantaged rural South African schools, some school principals are hopeful that as the reality has now been laid bare, it may prompt more urgent action. The paper recommends that school principals and teachers will have to refocus teaching practices towards flexible, inclusively delivered teaching through working collaboratively across disciplines so that they build their personal resilience and advance their technological skills to meet the demands of remote and online learning during a pandemic and beyond.