Announcements

CALL 2027 - 1

26-03-2026

Inclusion has become a key principle in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policies and practices worldwide. However, despite its widespread rhetorical adoption, its meaning and implementation remain deeply contested. Too often, inclusion is reduced to issues of access or the mere co-presence of children with diverse backgrounds within the same educational settings, without adequately addressing the structural, pedagogical, and cultural conditions required to ensure meaningful participation and learning for all.

At the same time, different educational systems adopt markedly different approaches to inclusion. In some countries, such as Italy, inclusion is strongly associated with the principle of educating all children within common settings, including those with disabilities or additional needs. In others, including several Central and Northern European contexts, differentiated or specialized pathways continue to play a significant role. These differences reflect not only policy choices, but also deeper assumptions about learning, development, equity, and the role of educational institutions.

Such diversity raises important questions that remain underexplored: To what extent do different systemic models produce equitable outcomes? Under which conditions does inclusion within common settings support or hinder learning? What are the risks of both full inclusion and differentiated provision? And how do these models interact with broader phenomena such as socio-economic inequality, migration, and linguistic diversity?

Contemporary ECEC contexts are increasingly characterized by complexity: linguistic, cultural, socio-economic, and developmental. In many urban areas, processes of segregation—both residential and educational—interact with patterns of migration and inequality, shaping children’s opportunities for development from the earliest years. In this context, inclusion cannot be understood as a purely normative principle, but must be analysed as a multi-layered phenomenon involving systems, practices, and outcomes.

Research has shown that inclusion is not simply a matter of placement, but depends on the quality of interactions, the intentionality of teaching practices, the design of learning environments, and the capacity of educators to mediate learning processes effectively. In this perspective, inclusion is closely linked to issues such as language development, access to cultural resources, early cognitive stimulation, and the professional competence of teachers.

This special issue aims to move beyond generic and normative understandings of inclusion and to explore it as a complex, context-dependent, and empirically investigable phenomenon. In particular, it invites contributions that examine inclusion across different educational systems, questioning assumptions, comparing models, and analysing their implications for equity, participation, and learning.