In Spain, nearly the total of the school population since the age of 3 is attending school, and around 9 % have a diagnosis of SEN Necesidad Específica de Apoyo Educativo (NEAE) (special needs education, high abilities and specific learning disabilities (LSD)). From this group, Andalusia region has the highest number of children incorporated into integrative settings in the whole country, meaning children with SEN being taught in settings where they are segregated into special classes. In the academic year 2021/22, 40% of children with NEAE were attending special schools and the 60% were integration classes in ordinary schools (Junta de Andalucia, 2022). Whether the decision-making of selecting the setting is done by families or external professionals, teachers are the ones that implement the daily basis practices with the children. These teachers have to work using the principles of non-discrimination accessibility and universal design following the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (United Nations, 2006). This qualitative study aims through a sociocultural approach to examine the teacher’s agency. Using happenstance learning theory (Krumboltz, 2009) and in-depth semi-structured interviews (Deterding & Waters, 2021), it examines practices which are trying to be inclusive but failing, and the practices that are seen as being alternative to inclusive practices. We will be exploring the importance of teachers attached to the leadership functions and in which way they seem themselves as leaders (York‐Barr et al, 2005) and their implications on the school culture (Gurr et al, 2022). In this study will be participating two special schools and two ordinary schools. The research participants of this study are key actors from the education system which are 4 regular education teachers, 4 special needs educators, and 4 NGOs teaching assistants working in special schools, in ordinary settings with integration classes and combined schooling programmes. There is limited research on the coordination and shared decision-making among professionals working with children with SEN in the Spanish context (Corral-Granados, 2022), and none of them study why inclusion is not working for them and their views on alternative approaches to inclusion, including those which arise from special education”

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