The UNCRPD (United Nations 2007) which was signed and ratified by almost all the countries of the world postulates the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classrooms. Even during the two decades before, European education policies have changed their school systems from segregative to integrative tracks (Smyth et al 2014). The symposium focuses on policy aspects of inclusion in transition to and within secondary schools, topics of teaching and learning, and the challenge of teacher education in a global perspective.

During the last years, inclusive education in primary schools increased in terms of the number of students and quality.  Changing to and during secondary school a number of problems remain which were investigated and described for several countries. Thus the transition phase to secondary education is especially prone to marginalisation processes. Students with disabilities who are attributed to inclusive settings may experience loneliness and face a lack of social participation to a higher degree than their peers (Bossaert et al 2012, Lasgaard et al 2010). A gap between cognitive and social development can provoke exclusion tendencies. The increase of problems is combined with a lack of awareness of secondary school teachers, who tend to define themselves more as instructors of subjects, than as educator of children and youths.

A number of unsolved problems in the field of pedagogy and didactics still remain in the implementation process in secondary school (e.g. at grade 5 to 12 in Austria). The pint of transition differs between different countries, in some like Austria it happens as early as at the age of ten.

The symposium is based on the collaborative work of an international network of researchers from Europe, Australia and North America, which has already developed an overview of different challenges in different countries (Biewer, Böhm, Schütz 2015) which will be deepened by further research activities. This symposium presents the state of international research on unsolved and contentious topics by contributions of researchers from Europe, America and Australia. It presents results and problems in the context of secondary education and disability of scientific research in 3 continents.

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