Introduction

This issue seeks to confront the challenge encapsulated in the notion of Special Education. This is a challenge which has been with us from before the days of compulsory education, intensified with the arrival of formal schooling for the masses and took on a new dimension as calls for inclusive education began to grow. It is about how we support people who have sensory, intellectual or physical characteristics that are marginalised by society and who face additional everyday challenges as part of their lived experience. Across all countries, similar numbers of children associated with such characteristics spend at least 80% of their time outside of the regular classroom, even in those systems which claim to have closed special education settings (E.g: EASNIE, 2024; Anastasiou et al, 2015).