This paper presents a systematic literature review of the student agency for students with disability in the international literature from 2015 to 2025. After the student voice was formally recognized in UN-CRC (1989) as the capability of one’s expressing their views, student voice has been tied to being an agent of school change initiatives, where students actively participate in shaping their learning experiences and engaging in dialogue to facilitate meaningful school transformation (Messiou et al., 2025). Before these epistemic changes, although a shift toward child-centered pedagogy is noted ambiguously in the Salamanca Statement (1994), educational outcomes for students with disabilities and inclusive education rely on collaboration with adults, such as teachers, administrators, and families. This heavy focus on adult involvement overlooked discussions of student agency and relational capacities in transforming practices within existing power dynamics (Bahou, 2012).

Since that time, the concepts of student agency have been explored in inclusive and special education as well as disability studies in education through different perspectives, such as students as contributors (Carrington et al., 2007; Koritsaris, 2022; Messiou, 2017), their roles as change agents (Messiou et al., 2025; Narayan, 2011), their perspectives and views (Shogren et al., 2015), and their position as boundary crossers (Bal et al., 2014; Ko et al., 2021). Agency is considered a key learning objective within pedagogies and curriculum in action (Smith et al., 2022) and building a critical lens for community change (Durand et al., 2025). To better understand this paradigmatic change in inclusive education and how student agency for students with disabilities is scholarly exercised, conceptualized, and transformed over time, we asked the following questions:

1. To what extent has international special and inclusive education research examined student agency across Pre-K to K–16 levels between 2015 and 2025?
2. What methodological characteristics have scholars used to explore student agency in special and inclusive education research at Pre-K to K-16 levels between 2015 and 2025?
3. How is student agency for students with disabilities conceptualized in the articles? 
4. What trends emerge in research purposes and findings of the articles related to student agency for students with disabilities?

The review discusses a critical gap between the contemporary emphasis on student agency in inclusive and special education and how empirical studies move from its rhetorical status of experience and voice as an instrument to its enactment, mediation, and development within learning and curriculum objectives. By synthesizing methodological, conceptual, and empirical trends, this paper aims to explore the paradigm shifts and future directions of student agency in the field of inclusive education.

To answer the research questions, the systematic literature review methodology is conducted by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement (Page et al., 2021). We included 5 databases: ERIC, PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, and Education Research Complete. Regarding the inclusion criteria, student agency for students with disabilities had to be a focus of the publication, and these studies had to include students with disabilities or focus on students with disabilities or special educational needs. The publications also had to be empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals, published in English, and with full text available. To capture the scholarly work on agency as represented by the term 'voice,' various terminologies are included to broaden the search beyond just the term 'agency.’ Since scholars might vary in their conceptualizations of "inclusive education" and "student agency", we also included studies that used terminology (e.g., intersectionality, marginalized students, students with diverse needs, low achievers). Additionally, studies had to include an indication or exploration of disability or special needs or provide a justification for inclusive education. We excluded (a) theoretical studies, book chapters, conference abstracts, review articles, editorials, dissertations and (b) publications, and that were not in English and available in full text, (c) publications that involve students beyond high school and that focus on higher education settings, college education context (d) publications that do not discuss on student agency, as well as those that do not address or report on inclusive or special education contexts (e) studies that address adults with disabilities.

25 research studies were analyzed to examine trends in international special and inclusive education research on student agency for students with disabilities between 2015 and 2025. While the first four-year period between 2015 and 2019 yielded only 8 studies (32%), research focus on student agency in special and inclusive education amplified in the second half of the decade. Of the 25 included studies, 17 (68%) were published between 2020 and 2025. The distribution includes journals that focus on special education and inclusive education (n = 9). 44% of the studies (n = 11) were published in journals focused on special and inclusive education. Although research is heavily skewed toward Western contexts, particularly North America and Europe, it has received global focus; across 10 countries, and 1 cross-country study has been conducted among five European countries (Austria, Denmark, Portugal, Spain) and England. However, of the research studies, only 3 countries from the global south are included in this review. This may be because only English publications were included in this review. Our results have methodological implications for explaining trends in student agency. Research on student agency for students with disabilities focuses on upper elementary and secondary contexts, with limited samples in early childhood (Pre-K) settings. Our results discuss the scholarly focus on qualitative research designs and various data-collection methods. Our results shows that the concept of agency is compounded with and explored through related constructs such as voice, experience, and self-determination. While sociocultural and critical frameworks are evident, we discussed that the ways in which student agency is enacted and understood in the research studies are mediated by different frameworks of disability and inclusive education such as the medical model of disability, the social model of inclusive education, and the socio-cultural model of disability.

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