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Inclusive Education as an Opportunity to Create More Sustainable Universities

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 24 October 2024 | Viewed by 857

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Didactics and Educational Organisation, University of Seville, 41004 Seville, Spain
Interests: inclusive education; inclusive pedagogy; students with disabilities; faculty training; universal design for learning; qualitative research

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Guest Editor
Department of Didactics, University of Cádiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain
Interests: inclusive education; disability; higher education; qualitative research

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Guest Editor
Department of Pedagogy, University of Huelva, 21004 Huelva, Spain
Interests: inclusive education; disability; higher education; qualitative research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The road to real, quality inclusive education continues to be a long one for education systems around the world. Undoubtedly, the construction of a curriculum for all implies, as evidenced by the Index for Inclusion, that inclusive values must be adopted with sustainability-oriented aims. Among the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, we highlight Goal 4 in particular: quality education. The importance of this goal lies in regarding education as an essential pillar in order to achieve a sustainable planet. However, many inequalities in access, retention, and academic success in education systems around the world, including in higher education, persist in the present day. Inequalities in the world of education are sometimes accentuated when education is no longer compulsory, making access to university more complex, and many groups face numerous barriers to the successful completion of their education. This is the case of people with disabilities in particular. Although the number of students entering university increases every year in most parts of the world, their success rates remain considerably lower than those of students without disabilities.

The objective of this Special Issue is to explore the advances that are being made in inclusive education and disability in higher education, with special emphasis on strategies, good practices, and actions that help university systems advance on the road to inclusion. The SDG of achieving quality education goes beyond universal compulsory education, as it also includes achieving universal access to quality higher education. This goal includes, among its aims, ensuring equal access to quality undergraduate education; increasing the number of people with employability skills; ensuring access to all levels of education for vulnerable people, including people with disabilities; and providing safe and inclusive learning environments. Therefore, research into the improvement of inclusive processes in higher education is a priority.

This Special Issue will accept original research articles and reviews on the topic of inclusive education, disability, and higher education. Areas of research may include the following:

  • Experiences of students with disabilities in universities;
  • Difficulties and barriers to inclusive education and how to overcome them;
  • Faculty training and development in inclusive education;
  • Good inclusive practices in higher education;
  • Inclusive pedagogy and practices in universities;
  • Educational use of technologies for an inclusive education;
  • Universal Design for Learning and its implications for teaching quality;
  • Sustainable higher education though inclusion;
  • Analysis of politics and initiatives for educational inclusion in universities.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Rafael Carballo
Dr. Ana Doménech
Dr. Almudena Cotán
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 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 single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.

Keywords

  • inclusive education
  • inclusive pedagogy
  • higher education
  • universities
  • students with disabilities
  • faculty development
  • educational technologies
  • sustainable education
  • universal design for learning

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 243 KiB  
Article
Inclusive Pedagogy at University: Faculty Members’ Motivations
by Rafael Carballo and Almudena Cotán
Sustainability 2024, 16(11), 4588; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114588 - 28 May 2024
Viewed by 595
Abstract
The presence of students with disabilities in Higher Education (HE) is increasing. However, the permanence and success of these students at university is not granted. In this study, the voices of 119 faculty members from 10 Spanish universities who had been identified by [...] Read more.
The presence of students with disabilities in Higher Education (HE) is increasing. However, the permanence and success of these students at university is not granted. In this study, the voices of 119 faculty members from 10 Spanish universities who had been identified by their students with disabilities as inclusive were heard. For this purpose, a qualitative methodology was chosen, using the semi-structured individual interview as the instrument for data gathering. Two interviews were conducted with each participant to analyse the main areas of inclusive pedagogy (beliefs, knowledge, designs and actions). The results show the participants’ conceptions of disability, as well as their main motivations for carrying out inclusive pedagogy, such as their professional vocation and their previous experiences with people with disabilities. The article ends with a series of conclusions that outline the profile of an inclusive faculty member. This information can help universities to improve their faculty training programs to obtain a more inclusive teaching staff, which can be translated into more sustainable and inclusive university systems. Full article
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