Inclusive education is pivotal to sustainable development in different parts of the world. This perhaps accounts for its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in SDG4, which targets inclusive education. Meanwhile, inclusive education has predominantly dimensioned physically challenged or impaired learners. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden transition to online teaching and learning, the quest for a different dimension of inclusive education, especially with regard to technology, is on the increase. This study investigates how inclusive education is presented in scholarly published articles in the South African context. Five phases of a scoping review, namely identification, finding/searching, choosing, extraction/charting and collation, were adapted for the study. From the search using the terms “inclusive” AND “distance” AND “education” AND “disability” AND “South Africa”, a corpus of 73 scholarly published articles were identified. Using different selection criteria such as specific context of the study, 55 articles were deleted. Thus, a final corpus of 18 articles were analysed. From the reviewed relevant literature, themes were generated after retrieved information had been coded and categorised. Thus, inclusive education in the dimension of technological disability is to be explored.

The steps for scoping review as identified by Romund (2017) as well as Arksey and O’Malley (2005) were followed in the methodology:

Step 1: Identification of the research question(s) as well as the domain which needs exploration. The researcher identified the research question guiding the study which is: What is inclusivity in distance education from the dimension of access to technology, technology disability and skills? The author considers the identified question as a domain which needs to be explored.

Step 2: Find (search) phase: A search was done on two databases known as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). These two databases were selected following the submission of scholars, which attributes them to being the big commercial, bibliographic databases for scholarly literature.

Step 3: Selection phase: For this study, the search terms were: “inclusive” AND “distance” AND “education” AND “disability” AND “South Africa”. Following the search, published articles and conference articles were included, while books and book chapters were excluded. The reason for the inclusion of published articles and conference articles was because of the review process involved in journal and conference articles. The researcher believes journal articles and conference proceedings go through rigorous review compared to books and book chapters. Furthermore, at this phase, the author eliminated certain articles which were considered irrelevant following certain criteria such as not being in the specific context of South Africa which is the focus of the study. Also, articles which did not have inclusive in the main texts but reference lists were excluded because it implied that they are not in the context of the study. Thus, articles which were in the context of South Africa and had inclusive in the main text, not necessarily reference list were included for analysis in the study.

Step 4: Extraction and/or chart phase: At this stage, the data from selected relevant studies are to be organised. In the context of this study, the researcher organised the final corpus of 18 relevant articles into how inclusion in education is considered and presented in different articles by various scholars. In the analysis of the final corpus of 18 articles adopted for this study, inclusion was presented and explained in the context of disabled persons. In the other three articles, inclusion was presented in each of them in the following contexts: inclusion as per teaching a particular subject considered difficult; inclusion in the context of rural schools and learners into learning activities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic; and inclusion in terms of social context.

Step 5: Collation or summary phase: At this stage, the author summarizes the findings of the study. It is at this stage that the data can be coded, categorised, thereafter theme generated for explanation. Thus, in the context of this study, from the analysed final corpus of relevant literature themes were generated following the coding, and categorization from the submission of the scholars. The identified themes which were discussed are: 1. Inclusivity in the context of historically disadvantaged (black) persons, 2. Inclusivity in the context of physically challenged (disabled) persons, 3. Inclusivity - for persons with special educational needs (SEN), 4. Way forward.

Sequel to the findings of the study and discussions, a submission is made. The scoping review shows that the focus on inclusivity in education as expected has been in the context of the disabled. Thus, the concept of inclusive education remains a term associated with physically challenged people; in other words, persons with disabilities. In the context of South Africa, inclusivity in education may be attributed to the context of two dimensions, particularly of historically disadvantaged persons who are predominantly from black areas, and physically impaired persons. The scoping review therefore presents that inclusivity in the digital and/or postdigital eras is to be reconsidered and redefined. In other words, the study indicated that the focus on inclusive education in the South African context is directed towards physically impaired or challenged persons. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made to educational leaders in specific:

• Distance education should be reconsidered to include issues revolving around lack of knowledge and skills in the use of technology. This could be as a result of learners’ lack of access to needed technological gadgets and technology such as computers, internet connectivity, technological skills and so forth.
• Also, policies of inclusivity in education should be reviewed and revised to include persons who lack technological knowledge and skills.

Selected references / sources

Romund, G. (2017). Understanding Review Types: Scoping Reviews. University of Manitoba Libraries. https://libguides.lib.umanitoba.ca/reviewtypes/scoping.

Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping Studies: towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19–32. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616

Citation and link to actual paper which contains all the references and sources cited in the work:

Uleanya, C. Reconceptualising Disabilities and Inclusivity for the Postdigital Era: Recommendations to Educational Leaders. Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 51.
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13010051