Three decades ago, students with additional needs were predominantly educated in segregated settings. This trend shifted in 1994 when the Salamanca Statement called for inclusive education systems to integrate all students into mainstream classrooms (UNESCO, 1994). Many nations subsequently enacted policies to facilitate inclusion. Researchers during this period raised concerns that inclusion would be challenging without adequately preparing schools and school educators and addressing their apprehensions (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002). Numerous studies explored teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion, assuming negative attitudes could hinder efforts to include learners with additional needs (Loreman et al.,, 2007). Parallel research, over the subsequent years, examined individual teachers’ self-efficacy and confidence in teaching inclusive classrooms, emphasizing the importance of high self-efficacy beliefs to equip educators with the skills and mindset necessary for managing diverse environments effectively (Sharma et al., 2012). In recent years, researchers—including ourselves—have argued that meaningful inclusion requires a school-wide, collective commitment rather than efforts from individual educators alone (Sharma et al., 2023; Subban et al., 2022). Collaboration among all school staff makes inclusion manageable and enriching for all involved (Subban et al., 2024). Yet, research on how schools build collective commitment remains limited. This gap exists partly because the construct of collective commitment has not been clearly conceptualized. Advancing inclusive education requires moving beyond individual perspectives to examine how groups of educators foster inclusive school communities collaboratively. In this presentation, we introduce a framework for conceptualizing "collective commitment" and propose methods for measuring this construct to assess a school’s readiness for inclusive education. Additionally, we outline practical strategies for fostering collective commitment within schools, enabling sustainable and inclusive learning environments.

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