About this Research Topic

Background

In 2022, a Research Topic was launched to explore inclusive practices in non-formal education places for individuals with disabilities. It focused on understanding and drawing inspiration from a variety of global initiatives that aim to enhance the learning, leisure, and participation of people with disabilities and special education needs in non-formal education environments. These valuable contributions from researchers and educators from Europe, Africa, and South America offered a diverse exploration of access, accessibility, inclusion, and special education strategies in out-of-school programs and non-formal education spaces. Notably, the submissions have predominantly focused on addressing visual and hearing disabilities. Despite the richness of these submissions, there remains a recognized need to expand themes and approaches and enrich the ongoing discussions in this important field.

Access is fundamental for both exercising the right to education and the opportunity to participate in cultural and scientific environments. Ensuring access to education, science, and culture means tackling barriers ranging from limited infrastructure and resources to exclusionary practices and policies. This includes enabling the inclusion of people with disabilities in spaces like museums, galleries, scientific, cultural, and art institutions, libraries, zoos, planetariums, and heritage sites and providing them with equal learning opportunities for participation and engagement.

Our primary goal is to foster deeper and varied discussions on the inclusion and accessibility of children and adults with disabilities in non-formal education. We value research performed by people with disabilities and/or that actively engages them, emphasizing their voices, viewpoints, and inputs. Moreover, we expect that this second volume of our Research Topic will delve into a broader spectrum of themes and approaches, encompassing a wider variety of disabilities and strategies.

We seek empirical studies and systematic literature review papers to add to this subject's growing body of literature and encourage diverse methodologies and critical framing of the issue. We welcome authors from diverse backgrounds and all continents and high-quality Original Research articles, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Systematic Reviews, and more.

Key themes/thematic topics can include, but are not strictly limited to:

• Developing educational methods and approaches that promote equal educational opportunities in non-formal environments, including curricula, pedagogies, and settings.

• Providing inclusive access to ensure the participation of learners and professionals with disabilities.

• Promoting lifelong and life-wide learning in non-formal educational settings, including physical places, online spaces, and blended spaces that combine both.

• Introducing new approaches that support interdisciplinary educational experiences and collaboration with institutions that foster the inclusion of people with disabilities.

• Debating the impact of organizational learning on empowering individuals with disabilities in non-formal educational settings.

• Deepening research methodologies and theories in the participation of people with disabilities in non-formal education for individuals.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Accessibility, Museum Education, Disability, Special Education, Inclusive Practices, People with Disabilities, Disability Rights

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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