Toward inclusion revisited: Inclusion as system work in the Australian context

Abstract This paper revisits ‘Towards Inclusion: An Australian Perspective’, published nearly two decades ago in Support for Learning . It offers a literature‐engaged, practice‐informed analysis of inclusive education in Australia. Drawing on sustained leadership experience across school, national, and international contexts, the paper concludes that inclusion is best understood as ongoing system work rather than a completed ‘reform’. It examines leadership of inclusion, systems coherence, teacher expertise and professional learning, and a long‐standing school‐based model of inclusive practice that demonstrates how specialist and mainstream expertise can operate collaboratively to enhance outcomes for learners. The paper positions the model as inclusion in action, offering a concrete example of how coherence can be co‐constructed within a federated education system.