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The pursuit of inclusive education in different countries is shaped by the extent and the nature of existing special educational provisions. We focus on two authoritarian regimes in the previous century: Soviet Russia (USSR) with its ideology of class (proletarian humanism and egalitarian universalism) and South Africa with its ideology of race (apartheid and discrimination). We make two assertions on the basis of a cross-case analysis based on a policy historiography. First, state ideology is visible, explicit and prominent in the shaping of special education. Second, the challenges of transitioning to a more inclusive education system are compounded by the ideological legacy of these regimes. Current moves towards inclusive education in both countries must contend with these ideological legacies, and we argue for greater recognition of the role of state ideologies in international and comparative studies of special and inclusive education.

A joint pre-conference (NW-12 & NW-3) on the methodology of comparative studies within the area of inclusive and early childhood education was held on 14 of March 2023, at 13.00-17.15.

This project was financed by the NERA research committee.

Pre-conference was implemented in accoordance with the planned agenda. There were 14 participants at the event from Sweden, Australia, Island and Finland. There were introduced 2 lectures by the professor Walton:

Topic 1 : The affordances/advantages of comparative research in inclusive and early childhood education

Topic 2: Methodological considerations

Part A: Considerations when embarking on comparative research;

Part B: Variations to consider. Both of the presentations were discussed and possible comparative research themes were tested. The pre-conference got high level of appreciation and conditions for the further cooperative work among participants was negotiated.

The article analyzes the issue of family resources in a family with a single father with mental retardation raising two adolescents in conditions of extreme poverty. The research methodology is based on the model of case study qualitative research within the phenomenological “life world” approaches. The study has an entire description of the father’s “life world” and the structural, constituent, and essential elements of his day-to-day parenting experience. It is shown that the family experience is struggling with extreme poverty within the conditions of severe social exclusion and is governed by the father's family history with a class nature. Current family resources (health, education, social, and economic) are characterized as being affected by different types of deficiency and dependence on external “donors”. The discussion is raising awareness of the role of special education in the process of structuring essential elements of the “life world” experience in such families, in general, and conditions of extreme poverty, in particular.

Countries of Central Eastern Europe despite their common colonial, nazi racism and communist ideological pressure background have experienced a nexus of local challenges toward inclusion. In the 1990s the ‘trail to inclusion’ was fully “…riddled with uncertainness, disputes and contradictions”. The overall trend of a response to the development of inclusion in these countries gained its certainty “within the context of general educational provision” and reforms under the influence and adoption of the Salamanca Statements and Framework of Actions in 1994. The latest generalization of research findings, investigated under the overall purpose of ‘what is known about inclusive education in Eastern Europe’ carried out by Stepaniuk in 2018, introduced inclusive education (within the time frame between 2005-2016) through the identification of a number of ‘barriers for inclusive education’ and ‘a policy-practice gap and responsibilities within systems’ in these countries. The investigation stressed that even though Eastern European and former Soviet states have filled their trails to inclusive education through a number of educational reforms, responding to Salamanca and other global statements in disability and education, the long-held beliefs, coloured by the inherited ideology of discrimination and exclusionary proprieties towards difference and disability – even though this is the fact, they have one of the strongest entrenched practice in this region.  

However, diversification in current trails to inclusive education is a refraction of a broader spectrum of interconnections among political, economic and social circumstances in each country. The research investigation in the present article, will be focusing on Moldova’ context of social-cultural historical origins and political choices and practice, discussing educational arrangements towards inclusion.

This is a qualitative study, with relevant peer review resources connected to the research question and national documents of educational reforms towards inclusion retrospectively and contemporary, analysed by a content analysis approach. This study utilises long term statistics completed by the respective international agencies as a result of regular monitoring of an implementation of educational reforms and the National Bureau of Statistics. Main findings were composed in three big themes: adaptation of the Soviet pattern of special education; ‘endemic stress’ of breaking the pattern and paradoxes of resolution

Development of education for all is a symbolic nexus/chain of policy agenda reforms in education towards its accessibility for each societal member. In Russia, the formation of this agenda was rooted in strong Soviet ideological doctrine, based on egalitarian values and hegemony of proletarian humanism. Ideological response to the needs of industrialization in its primary policy agenda reforms, created strong structural barriers to the basic right to education for children with disabilities in the public schooling system. The undertaken research appeals to the history of formation of education for all, dealing with social education legalization with two time frames: Soviet and Post-Soviet; methodology of the research has qualitative approach, aiming to make primary text analysis of the main state policy documents, concerning social justice and equity, educational laws, governmental orders and other documents, regulating education for children with disabilities retrospectively and contemporary. Secondary data, such as statistics, etc., were collected from the historic and current sources, such as peer reviewed publications, state archives, etc. The research questions are: what are the main features of the policy agenda for children with disabilities as a nexus of reforms of ‘education for all’ retrospectively and contemporary? What structural challenges occurred and what curriculum was created and implemented? What science perspective/s in special pedagogy emerged and transited? Research findings are combined in two big themes: Desired contours of the future and a state order for experimentation and unfinished experimentation: disrupting the pattern. The themes are supported by sub-themes. Both of the themes are discussed for the understanding of special education inputs in education for all.

The project ‘Social inclusion through segregation?’ that is presented in this final report has been conducted by Liya Kalinnikova Magnusson, associate professor at the University of Gävle, in col-laboration with Jeremias (Jerry) Rosenqvist Aulin, professor emeritus at Malmö University and guest professor at the University of Gävle. The project has been supported financially by The Swe-dish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (Stiftelsen för internationalisering av högre utbildning och forskning) (STINT-project No. IB2018-8090).

The Swedish society and school system have for many years taken a leading position on integration and inclusion in school. In spite of this politically supported ambition, a decrease in inclusive prac-tices has been discerned over the last ten-fifteen years, e.g. with new student groups appearing in former inclusive schools (Blom, 2004; Heimdahl-Mattson, 2007). This tendency can be seen in other Nordic countries too.In order to deepen our knowledge about this phenomenon, a comparison with its development in other countries, where segregation in education has been more or less the rule, seems reasonable. The ambition of this project has been to investigate the status of inclusion in the former Soviet Union states of Ukraine and Moldova, compare it with the status in Sweden and suggest a research platform for further studies in this field in cooperation with the Faculty of Correctional Pedagogy and Psy-chology at National Pedagogical University named after M. Dragomanov (Ukraine), the Faculty of Special Psycho-pedagogy at the State Pedagogical University named after I. Creanga (Moldova) and the Academy of Education and Economics at the University of Gävle (Sweden). The guiding re-search question for the study has been: Can we reach social inclusion in life through segregation in school?

The research is focused on two main tendencies. The first one- reforms of the system of special education and a process of decreasing of special schools; the implementation of the concept of inclusive education and the problem of accessibility of special educational resources. The second tendency is discussing the situation of the attitudes to inclusive education by parents of children with developmental disability in conditions of extreme poverty. The research methodology is based on case study approach and it is a phenomenological study.

The article is generalizing the results of the Russian-Norwegian project regarding the implementation of the cooperation between the Faculty of Social work of Pomor State University and Oslo Institute of special education and the local municipality. The overall project research initiatives were addressed to the development of services for children with severe disabilities and their families within the theoretical frame of Normalization, Decentralization, provision of Inclusion in society and Equal Rights in Education, targeting to build a daily center for these children in the Novodvinsk city of Archangelsk region [Russian North]. The research project was managed by the Oslo’ Institute of Special Education (now Department of Special Needs Education at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of Oslo University, Norway). The report is presenting and discussing some collected data, central for the development and implementation of the project idea, contributed by the researchers/authors from the university on the Russian side: research, education and participation in the process of evaluation/ monitoring of the project development. The research work was focusing on study of a family situation, family needs, implementation of which was realised through the number of sub-research projects/final educational diploma of students of the faculty of social work. Educational tasks were realised through supervision, teaching and workshops in the form of provision of theoretical expertise and experience of practical technologies of interdisciplinary work with families and children for specialists, involved in the project and future work in the “building” by the project daily center. The process of evaluation/monitoring was controlled by the expectations of families to get “ideal” interdisciplinary service for their children. It was a big project, which collected data from about 500 families with children with disabilities and from families with ordinary children. All the collected data got their hermeneutic interpretation, briefly presented in this report.