Conference Agenda

Internationally, there is a growing expectation that mainstream schools will effectively educate and include all learners, irrespective of disability or special educational needs (SEN) (Ainscow, 2020). Alongside this, the concept of inclusive education has gained significant criticality, highlighting the need to create supportive environments for students with special educational needs (Qvortrup and Qvortrup, 2018).

Within this discourse, parental expertise and lived experience play a central role. Parents contribute situated knowledge and insights that shape understandings of inclusion, influence educational decision making, and impact the effectiveness of inclusive practices within schools (De Boer et al., 2010; Stevens & Wurf, 2020).

This symposium presents four papers from Australia, Norway, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, drawing on findings from phase two of a global investigation into parental school choice and inclusion. All contributions originate from a broader study involving nine countries and examining parents’ and carers’ preferences and experiences regarding school placement for their children. The project explores how parents perceive inclusion, how they navigate educational systems, and how their lived experience aligns with or diverges from stated national commitments to inclusive education.

Theoretical and Methodological Framework: The symposium is informed by Urhahne and Wijnia’s (2023) integrative framework on theories of motivation in education, which provides a conceptual lens for analysing parents’ motivations, aspirations and concerns, and the processes underpinning school choice. Using this framework, we examine how parents make sense of their encounters with educational systems over time, including the understandings and expectations they bring to these interactions.

Qualitative, semi structured interviews were conducted with Canada (12), Australia (27), Norway (19) and UAE (16) parents. Thematic analysis identified convergences and divergences in parental perspectives, with attention to decision making rationales, perceptions of inclusive practice, relational experiences with schools, and aspirations for their children’s education.

Symposium Contributions:
Collectively, the four papers illuminate how parents interpret and navigate inclusive education across distinct social, cultural and policy contexts. The symposium explores what parents believe inclusive education has been, what it currently is, and what it could become. Emphasis is placed on parents’ relational encounters with educators and systems, their interpretations of inclusion’s effectiveness, and their hopes for more meaningful and equitable practices. Narratives reveal both the possibilities of inclusive schooling and the persistent systemic constraints that shape families’ experiences.

The first paper demonstrates that parental choice is rarely a matter of simple preference or ideology. Rather, it is a relational and often risk laden practice shaped by systemic limitations, institutional responsiveness, and families’ negotiations with schooling structures. Parents’ decisions are embedded within local opportunities and constraints, including the perceived safety, accessibility and adequacy of support within mainstream settings.

The second paper shows that positive experiences of inclusion are strongly associated with robust school–family relationships. Parents emphasised the importance of trust, communication and genuine collaboration, identifying these as key predictors of effective, personalised and inclusive support.

Building on these insights, the third paper highlights the centrality of context dependent opportunities and stresses the need for strong, responsive relationships not only with schools but with wider educational stakeholders. This paper reveals how parents’ understandings of inclusion are shaped by the broader socio educational ecosystem, including policies, service availability and community attitudes.

The fourth paper argues for sustained national and global dialogue among stakeholders—parents, educators, policymakers and researchers—about how parental expertise and preferences should inform the future of inclusive education. It underscores the need to honour parental knowledge as a vital dimension of educational decision making.

Together, the symposium contributes to the international discourse on inclusive education by foregrounding parental perspectives as essential to improving policy, practice and outcomes for learners globally.

Australia has formally endorsed inclusive education through international and national policy commitments aligned with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and related education frameworks (United Nations, 2006; UNESCO, 2009). Yet these commitments coexist with a diversified schooling system in which mainstream, special, and segregated provisions operate in parallel. Within this landscape, parents of children with disability are positioned as primary navigators of inclusion, required to interpret policy, negotiate support, and make consequential schooling decisions. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 27 Australian parents who had moved their children between mainstream and special settings, this paper conceptualises parental choice not as preference or ideology, but as a relational, risk-laden practice shaped by systemic constraints, institutional responsiveness, and cumulative experiences of inclusion and exclusion. Inclusion emerges as a promise that is pursued, sustained, and sometimes abandoned when it becomes untenable - inclusion, until it isn’t. The study employed semi-structured interviews with parents across primary and secondary schooling, with particular attention to transition points where decisions intensified. Interviews explored placement experiences, sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and parents’ visions for future inclusive schooling. Data were analysed thematically using an iterative approach attentive to both shared patterns and contextual specificity (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Parents were treated as knowledgeable stakeholders, capable of articulating their children’s needs alongside the systemic conditions shaping decision-making (Sharma et al., 2022). Across accounts, choice functioned as an ongoing negotiation between competing risks rather than a simple selection between school types. Parents often remained in mainstream settings despite dissatisfaction to preserve belonging, moving only when academic stagnation, emotional distress, or informal exclusion became unsustainable. Moves to special schools were frequently framed as reluctant, pragmatic responses to unmet needs rather than rejections of inclusion. Satisfaction was shaped less by placement than by relational and institutional responsiveness - being listened to, timely support, curricular flexibility, and environmental adaptation. Parents consistently identified individual educators or advocates as critical relational anchors, highlighting how inclusion is often sustained through personal relationships rather than systemic guarantees. Despite this fragility, parents articulated clear, pragmatic visions for inclusive education grounded in dignity, belonging, and realistic expectations. The Australian case demonstrates that parental choice is not opposition to inclusion, but a critical lens on how inclusion is unevenly enacted and lived.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. Illum, N. O., Bonderup, M., & Gradel, K. O. (2018). Parents’ expressions of concerns and hopes for the future and their concomitant assessments of disability in their children. Clinical Medicine Insights: Pediatrics, 12, 1179556518784948. Sharma, U., Woodcock, S., May, F., & Subban, P. (2022). Examining parental perception of inclusive education climate. Frontiers in Education, 7, 907742. UNESCO. (2009). Policy guidelines on inclusion in education. UNESCO. United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. United Nations

Inclusive education is grounded in the belief that all students belong and are valued members of their neighbourhood school (Porter & Towell, 2017). In Canada, education is not overseen by a federal authority; instead, each province is responsible for its own system. For this reason, the present paper focuses on Ontario, the province with roughly 40% of the national population. Ontario’s education system includes a continuum of classroom settings. While many students with disabilities are educated in their local schools, experiences vary widely—from inclusive classrooms with supports for teachers and students to separate, specialized classrooms. Both schools and families have increasingly reported challenges in meeting the needs of students with disabilities (Mann et al., 2024; Reid et al., 2018). The current study examines parental satisfaction with schooling for students with disabilities, with particular attention to families who have considered or pursued a school change due to dissatisfaction. In this study, parents indicated that half of the children had Autism as their primary diagnosis, and the other half had an intellectual disability. All began their education in mainstream settings. Over time, 60% transitioned to segregated environments—40% during elementary school and 20% during secondary school. The remaining 40% moved to other mainstream schools, private schools, or homeschooling arrangements. Analysis of parent interviews revealed several consistent themes. The most significant factor influencing school changes was dissatisfaction with the existing system. Parents frequently felt their children were not receiving an adequate education, even when social experiences were positive. When parents described positive school experiences, they often attributed them to strong relationships with school staff. Educational assistants were frequently highlighted as especially important because they spent the most time with the child. Teachers were valued when they demonstrated strong instructional skills and maintained open, effective communication with families. Principals who showed leadership and a commitment to inclusion were also highly regarded. When asked about the ideal educational setting, all but one parent envisioned all students learning together in mainstream classrooms. However, most felt that the current system did not support this vision. Many expressed that the system focused too heavily on “fixing” their child rather than accepting them and providing meaningful choices and expectations. Parents emphasized the need for a more flexible curriculum that would allow diverse learners to participate together. To achieve this, they stressed the importance of increased teacher support, including additional training, teaching partners, and smaller class sizes.

Mann, G., Fleming, K., Specht, J., & Bobongie-Haris, F. (2024). Parents and teachers working together (pp.331-346). In L.J. Graham (Ed.), Inclusive education for the 21st century: Theory, policy, and practice. Routledge. Porter, G. L., & Towell, D. (2017). Advancing inclusive education: Keys to transformational change in public education systems. Https://inclusiveeducation.ca/2017/04/21/advancing-inclusive-education. Reid, L., Bennett, S., Specht, J., White, R., Somma, M., Li, X., Lattanzio, R., Gavan, K., Kyle, G., Porter, G., & Patel, A. (2018). If inclusion means everyone, why not me? Retrieved from https://www.inclusiveeducationresearch.ca/docs/why-not-me.pdf

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948, Art.26, para.3) states that “parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children”, positioning parental choice as a fundamental principle alongside the ideal of inclusion (UNESCO, 2009). Parental choice may involve decisions between educational provisions, including mainstream and special schools for children with additional educational needs. Previous research shows that when parents consider different educational provisions, special schools are often described not as an active preference, but as a necessary solution when mainstream schools are perceived as insufficiently adapted to their children’s needs. This situation has been described as a constrained choice, shaped by limited local alternatives, repeated negative experiences with mainstream provision, and prolonged negotiations with educational authorities (Satherley & Norwich, 2022). Research has also shown that parents are knowledgeable contributors to understanding their children’s needs and future prospects (Illum et al., 2018). Despite this, parents’ perspectives remain underrepresented in research on educational decision-making for children with additional educational needs (Sharma et al., 2022). Within the Norwegian education system, parental collaboration is legally mandated (the Education Act, 2023), while opportunities for choosing between schools are formally limited and largely determined by local authorities. This study examines how parents of children with additional needs navigate educational choices within the Norwegian inclusive education system, including their hopes for an ideal educational environment. The study is based on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 19 parents. Parents describe their educational choices as shaped by concerns for their children’s future learning, participation, and belonging. Preliminary analysis identified three main themes: (1) parental “choice” and the role of contextual and situational factors; (2) parents’ experiences of advocating for justice and equality; and (3) school transitions as a search for competence and belonging. The findings suggest that while parents would welcome a wider range of educational options, their decisions are constrained by context-dependent opportunities and shaped by their visions of what an ideal school should provide. Parental satisfaction does not appear to be primarily related to school type, but rather to factors such as relational support, flexibility, empathy and responsiveness among educational stakeholders, professional competence, and feeling heard and taken seriously. The study highlights the importance of parental perspectives for understanding educational decision-making and for developing a more just and equitable education system.

Illum, N. O., Bonderup, M., & Gradel, K. O. (2018). Parents’ Expressions of Concerns and Hopes for the Future and Their Concomitant Assessments of Disability in Their Children. Clinical Medicine Insights: Pediatrics, 12, 1179556518784948. https://doi.org/10.1177/1179556518784948 Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. 2023. Opplæringslova [Education Act]. LOV 2023 06 09 25. Sharma, U., Woodcock, S., May, F., & Subban, P. (2022). Examining Parental Perception of Inclusive Education Climate. Frontiers in Education, 7, 907742. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.907742 UNESCO. (2009). Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000177849 United Nations. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Globally, parents have been recognized as important stakeholders in effort towards promoting equitable access to education (e.g. Fan & Williams, 2010). Specifically, international and domestic legal frameworks make provision for parental role in enrolment, supporting and collaborating with teachers to offer quality education to students with special educational needs (SEND; Heward, 2013). However, consistently, in countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), parents have raised numerous concerns with respect to the implementation of inclusive education (e.g., Lamba et al., 2022). In literature, parents have voiced their concerns about teacher quality, school facilities, school climate and lack of clarity about role in the implementation of inclusive education (e.g., Lamba et al., 2022). However, one area yet to be explored is parental perspectives on ideal inclusive school system which could be developed for children with SEND. In this study, interviews were conducted with 16 parents who took part in Phase I of global study on inclusive school climate for children with SEND in the UAE. In this follow-up phase (Phase II), parents expressed preference for inclusive schools for their children with SEND. Parents whose children have changed schools said that current schools of enrollment were better than earlier schools. However, parental expectations about ideal teaching support for their children in inclusive schools were unmet. Yet, many indicated that the inclusive school systems offer some opportunities for their children to acquire useful skills that would facilitate social inclusion. In terms of their preferred inclusive school system, many parents indicated that inclusive schools should have teachers who have empathy for children with SEND, schools having team support, school leaders committed to inclusive practices and offer more hands-on experiential learning experiences. The study concludes with suggestions for national dialogue between stakeholders such as teachers, parents and policymakers on how parental preferences could be considered in future inclusive policy reforms in the UAE.

Fan, W., & Williams, C. M. (2010). The effects of parental involvement on students’ academic self‐efficacy, engagement, and intrinsic motivation. Educational Psychology, 30(1), 53–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410903353302. Heward, L.W. 2013. Exceptional children: an introduction to special education. Pearson. Lamba, N., Van Tonder, A., Shrivastava, A., & Raghavan, A. (2022). Exploring challenges and support structures of mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder in the United Arab Emirates. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 120, 104138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104138BA.