The papers collectively show knowledge developed within the Breaking Down Barriers programme which demonstrate how committed and welltrained school leaders—formal and informal—act as champions of inclusion. Their expertise enables them to dismantle physical, attitudinal and systemic barriers through holistic strategies. These include strengthening the selfesteem of children with disabilities, building family–school partnerships, mobilising scarce and external resources, investing in teacher capacity, creating community networks, and working as advocates within their communities.
Key Recommendations for Practice
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Special Edition – Comparative Study: Design policies that explicitly integrate leadership as a core Inclusive Education success factor, and support leaders to act as advocates, connectors, knowledge brokers, role models and entrepreneurs across contexts.
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Zambia – Best Practices in Inclusive Education: Prioritise capable, intrinsically motivated school leaders and replicate the shared practices they use—IE committees, assessments, teacher capacity building, partnerships and parent
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Zambia – Brokers of Inclusion: School leaders should strengthen children's selfesteem, engage parents as partners, and mobilise or optimise resources to overcome scarcity in implementing inclusive education.
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Sierra Leone – Key Roles of School Leaders: Invest in developing headteachers’ five leadership roles—role model, connector, advocate, knowledge broker and visionary—to improve implementation and shift community attitudes.
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Cameroon – Positive Deviants: Support school leaders in combining strong commitment with external partnerships to deliver community outreach, teacher capacity building, resource mobilisation and signlanguage development.