A group of experts from Inclusion International’s Catalyst for Inclusive Education, has published a background paper titled “Lead to include: educational leadership for inclusive education” for the 2024/5 Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) on “Leadership in education: lead for learning”. 

What is Catalyst for Inclusive Education?

Catalyst for Inclusive Education is an initiative that supports Inclusion International members in advocating for inclusive education at global, regional, and national levels.

What is the Global Education Monitoring Report?

The Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) is a big yearly report by UNESCO. It looks at how well countries around the world are doing with education, especially to see if they are reaching their goals to provide good, fair, and inclusive education for everyone.

Each year, the GEM Report has a theme that focuses on a different education issue. It shares important information, examples, and suggestions that can help governments improve education in their countries.

The 2024/5 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report focuses on leadership in education. The report’s examines the role of leaders in education, and how they can contribute to better learning outcomes. The report will cover leadership across all education levels, from pre-primary to adult education.

Our Background Paper

The “Lead to include: educational leadership for inclusive education” paper was commissioned by the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) team. The paper examines the role of educational leadership in achieving inclusive education, particularly for students with disabilities.

The authors of the paper are Paula Hunt, Wisdom Mprah, Gordon Porter, Diane Richler, Steve Sider, Jacqueline Specht, and Sue Swenson.

The paper includes a review of scholarly literature from five years (2018-2023) on educational leadership’s role in supporting inclusive education. The literature review covers materials in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Arabic.

The paper also presents case studies illustrating different leadership approaches relevant to inclusive education. Case studies include Colombia, New Brunswick (Canada), Haiti and, Portugal.

The paper’s key findings highlight that:

  • There is limited research exploring the link between educational leadership and inclusive education. Existing research predominantly concentrates on the school level, primarily focusing on the role of principals, with minimal attention given to teacher leadership or system-level leadership.
  • There is a lack of literature discussing how traditional leadership models hinder inclusive education and how civil society organisations can support educational leaders in fostering inclusion.
  • The case studies reveal that jurisdictions like Colombia, New Brunswick, and Portugal are unique in their inclusive education policies because these policies do not focus on special education or disability but aim to include all learners, including those with disabilities.
  • There is a scarcity of research on accountability mechanisms to assess systemic adherence to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), although the CRPD Committee’s periodic reporting offers some oversight.

The paper identifies a need for further research on:

  • Leadership competencies needed to achieve inclusive education and effective professional development programmes to develop those competencies.
  • Quantitative research into educational leaders’ beliefs, attitudes, and effectiveness in inclusive education.
  • The role of children, families, civil society, and the private sector as leaders in promoting, implementing, and monitoring inclusive education.
  • Ways to legitimize and support civil society’s role in promoting inclusive education.

The “Lead to include” paper serves as a valuable resource, drawing attention to the critical role of leadership in achieving inclusive education.

Its findings and recommendations are likely to inform the development of future policies and practices aimed at creating more inclusive education systems.

Regional Editions

The GEM Report will be accompanied by a series of regional editions throughout 2025 that will explore selected issues relevant to different regions of the world in more detail.

These regional reports will be developed in collaboration with partner organisations and will draw on country case studies.

One of these regional editions, focusing on Europe and Central Asia, will address leadership and inclusion in education. Given its thematic focus, this report is likely to draw upon the background document developed by Catalyst for Inclusive Education.