‘Inclusive education’is almost universally regarded as positive educational practice (Boyle, Scriven, Durning, & Downes, 2011), and for this reason, past decades have seen scholars and advocates arguing the merits of the construct. The Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) brought the idea of inclusive education to the fore in the mid 1990’s, and since this time it has been the prevailing philosophy for the education of students globally (Anderson & Boyle, 2019). However, rather than providing a guidebook of step by step instructions, it offered a loose framework for governments to create successful, inclusive systems. Different countries took different paths, and 25 years on, despite some positive changes (such as students who were once considered uneducable now accessing schools in some countries (Boroson, 2017)), it can be argued that we are not much further along the path towards inclusive education than we were two decades ago (Boyle & Anderson, in press). Why? This volume has attempted to provide some insights and answers to this complex question.

Inclusive education has proven difficult to define and thus difficult to effectively research and evaluate (Boyle & Anderson, in press). Despite inclusive education appearing in education policies around the globe (Slee, 2018), many very real challenges and barriers have been identified and described within the pages of this book that make enacting these policies within the confines of the local school fence, problematic. Most authors in this volume are positive about inclusive education, but temper this with the reality that exists in implementing a construct for which there is no globally agreed upon definition in a period of educational reform that is working within the current neoliberal socio-political climate. The destination of inclusive education, which once seemed achievable, has become like Scott Fitzgerald’s green light at the end of the pier; something which can be imagined, but will always and forever remain out of reach.