The contribution of digital technologies to inclusive teaching and learning relies on one hand on the user (different actors) at different education system levels (i.e., individual, institutional, regional/national) and on the other on their context (i.e., the conditions under which they are employed). A key factor for shaping digital transformation in inclusive education is the regional/national governance of the education system, which can be considered responsible for guaranteeing the necessary technological and cultural infrastructure to implement inclusive digital education (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2022). For this reason, the current paper refers to the first stages of an international project where a literature review was conducted to explore to what extent inclusive digital education is systematically included in the different strategies and policy documents of the project countries. Considering that both – the policy and practice level – differ with respect to school digitalization and inclusive education, it was crucial to first explore similarities and differences among the four education systems and, therefore, among the respective contexts for digital technologies use in inclusive teaching and learning. Two main areas were thus addressed in the literature review: (1) how digital education and digital competence are conceptualized and regulated in the school policies in the four countries, and (2) if and how inclusive education is considered within national strategies and policy documents tackling digital education (in schools, but not exclusively), that is whether students with disabilities/SEN are specifically mentioned in these documents, what kind of measures are specifically foreseen for this student group, etc. To perform the literature review and draw comparable findings among the four countries, a template with guided open questions was prepared and agreed to by the project team, which allowed the partners to explore more in-depth the most relevant aspects identified. Based on this template, each project team in our partner organizations produced a descriptive report summarizing the policy documents and relevant literature in their country in relation to the two main areas. Through thematic analysis (Flick, 2014) of the reports, it was highlighted that, although the first stages towards digitalization of education across the four countries were made (such as providing the necessary infrastructure), specific indications about measures and strategies to foster inclusive processes through the use of digital technologies are still missing at the normative level.

European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (2022). Inclusive Digital Education. (H. Weber, A. Elsner, D. Wolf, M. Rohs and M. Turner-Cmuchal, eds.). Odense, Denmark. Flick, U. (2014). An introduction to qualitative research. Oaks: Sage.