School Inclusion and EU Policies For Students With Special Educational Needs

framework. www.ijee.io Neuropsychological research and pedagogical literature already provide solid empirical bases for developing such guidelines (Snowling & Melby-Lervåg, 2016; Fletcher et al., 2019). Inclusive pedagogy, in its various forms—UDL, differentiated instruction, co-teaching, Response to Intervention—offers a repertoire of evidence-based practices that European policies should contribute to disseminating more systematically, through initial and ongoing teacher training, funding longitudinal research, and building stable international professional networks. The lesson emerging from the scientific literature is clear: cohesion policies are necessary but not sufficient. Without deep engagement from school communities, without a culture of inclusion permeating teachers’ daily practices, without recognition of the centrality of the educational relationship as the locus where learning quality is determined, European resources risk producing bureaucratic compliance rather than authentic transformation (Florian, 2019; Ainscow, 2020). In light of this analysis, there emerges a need for reflection on the very model of European education governance. The open method of coordination, based on voluntariness and the sharing of good practices, shows its structural limits in a context where inequalities between national and regional school systems are deep and persistent (Armstrong et al., 2011). Strengthening monitoring and accountability mechanisms, combined with strategic investment in comparative research on inclusion and greater conditionality of financial interventions with respect to minimum pedagogical quality standards, could help bridge part of this gap. This does not call for European centralization in education—which is excluded by the Treaties and difficult to justify in terms of democratic legitimacy—but rather for building stronger coherence between declared objectives, available instruments, and actual practices. In this context, pedagogy and educational research have an indispensable role—not as technical knowledge serving predefined policies, but as critical disciplines capable of interrogating policies themselves and guiding them toward a fuller, more coherent, and more equitable conception of inclusion. www.ijee.io References Ainscow, M. (2020). Promoting inclusion and equity in education: Lessons from international experiences. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 6(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2020.1729587 Anastasiou, D., & Kauffman, J. M. (2013). The social model of disability: Dichotomy between impairment and disability. 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