Inclusive global education: implications for social justice

Purpose - The overarching purpose of this paper is to empower K-12 educators, colleagues in teacher education programs, and educational leadership personnel to address social justice issues within communities where divergent perspectives abound. Design/methodology/approach - The authors use a discursive method to uncover the historical and theoretical differences between global education and inclusive education, identify the ways in which the two fields are complementary, and propose strategies for education leadership personnel that build on the commonalities and best practices of both fields. Findings - The authors argue that the two fields have essential elements that can and should inform each other. They term this intersection "inclusive global education". They integrate the concepts from global education and inclusive education to define inclusive global education as a pedagogical and curricular stance, a way to honor the diverse cultural, linguistic, physical, mental, and cognitive complexities of all people, and a process that puts problematization of social justice issues at the center of leadership and teaching/learning activities. Practical implications - Whereas global educators traditionally focus on learning to understand and come to respect the cultural, social, and political "other", the traditional focus of special educators is to empower students to gain self-respect. The authors argue that the first step involves a discourse that allows people with equally compelling but different views to learn to problematize issues of social justice. Once this first step is taken, inclusive global educators can come to agreements within diverse communities as to how to address local or global social justice issues. The authors further argue that global educators and special educators combine their knowledge of both fields. Together, global inclusive educators can forge pedagogical content knowledge that bridges the gap between affirming one's own identity and maintaining unity with the whole, and exemplifies a robust notion of social justice. Originality/value - The authors believe this is the first attempt to integrate the conceptual and theoretical assumptions of two divergent knowledge bases ( global education and inclusive education).