Beyond Salamanca: a citation analysis of the CRPD/GC4 relative to the Salamanca Statement in inclusive and special education research

ABSTRACT

More than two decades ago, UNESCO’s (1994) Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education galvanised the inclusion movement by providing a framework for inclusive education. The Statement succeeded in raising awareness of the concept of inclusion internationally, yet genuine inclusion is still the exception and not the norm. This is despite inclusive education being a fundamental human right under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008; CRPD in July 2008) adopted by the United Nations in 2006 as an international treaty and ratified by 181 countries that are legally bound to uphold its terms. In this paper, we examine education scholars’ uptake of the CRPD and GC4, relative to the Salamanca Statement, by conducting a citation analysis of literature published in journals from the fields of inclusive and special education between 1994 and 2019. We then look at how each document has been used in the literature over time and conclude with strategies to help improve knowledge of the CRPD / GC4 within education and discuss how these documents can be used to progress inclusive education internationally.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• human rights
• disability
• citation practices

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The team began the search with a field of 13 possible journals and reduced these to seven journals. Exclusion criteria included (i) the journal did not focus specifically on education, (ii) the journal focused on too narrow a geographical region, and/or (iii) because the publisher’s database was producing too many errors from the search (e.g. netting a high number of editorials, reviews and articles where neither document was cited).

2 For the purposes of this analysis, it was assumed that articles published before 2008 were not likely to mention the CRPD, which came into force in 2008.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Linda J. Graham

Linda J. Graham is Professor and Director of The Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She leads several externally funded research projects and has published more than 90 books, chapters and articles, including “Inclusive Education for the 21st Century: Theory, Policy and Practice”, published in 2020 by Routledge.

Marijne Medhurst

Marijne Medhurst is a Research Assistant in The Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE) at QUT and conducted her doctoral research on inclusive classroom assessment. She is currently undertaking research on autism and early childhood education and care.

Catia Malaquias

Cátia Malaquias is a lawyer, director and award-winning human rights and inclusion advocate. She has been involved in various United Nations processes on the rights of persons with disabilities and in the development of General Comment No. 4 (Right to Inclusive Education). Cátia is undertaking a PhD at Curtin University, Australia.

Haley Tancredi

Haley Tancredi is Coordinator of The Centre for Inclusive Education at QUT. She is also an educational speech pathologist and PhD candidate, investigating the impact of teachers’ use of accessible pedagogies on the classroom experiences, engagement and learning outcomes of students with language and attentional difficulties.

Catriona de Bruin

Catriona de Bruin is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research focuses on evidence-based practices supporting the implementation of inclusive education in policy, systems, schools, and classrooms. Her current projects examine academic and behavioural instruction and intervention within multi-tiered systems of support.

Jenna Gillett-Swan

Jenna Gillett-Swan is an Associate Professor in The Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE) at QUT. She researches to understand and address threats to wellbeing in students’ educational experiences through participatory rights-based approaches to educational transformation and school improvement.

Shiralee Poed

Shiralee Poed is an Associate Professor in The Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE) at QUT, Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Chair of the Association for Positive Behaviour Australia. She has over 30 years of experience in teaching, policy, and research roles in schools and universities.

Ilektra Spandagou

Ilektra Spandagou is an Associate Professor at the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney, Australia. She has twenty years of experience of researching and teaching internationally in the areas of inclusive education policy and practice, comparative education, disability, and classroom diversity.

Suzanne Carrington

Suzanne Carrington is a Professor in The Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE) at QUT. She has over 25 years of experience working in universities in teaching, research, international development, and senior leadership roles. Suzanne’s areas of expertise are in inclusive education, ethical leadership and disability policy and practice in Australian and international contexts.

Kathy Cologon

Kathy Cologon is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University, specialising in inclusive education and early childhood.