Inclusive Practices and Bilingual Education

Abstract

Alongside the steady increase of bilingual schools, the last two decades have witnessed the need to incorporate inclusive practices within such settings. Notwithstanding, the diversity of needs and multiple learning environments embraced by the term inclusion and the recent generalization of bilingual programs in some contexts have led to limited and heterogeneous research on this matter. This chapter aims to outline the emergent themes in recent literature regarding inclusion and bilingual/plurilingual education. To this end, through the analysis of abstracts in recent research regarding both issues, thematic categories were separated and discussed using MAXQDA 10.0 software. Results show a clear salience of context-bound pedagogical practices, followed by bilingual education of the deaf as a key theme. The emergent themes raised in the current literature can help education stakeholders identify the research trends in this area and reflect upon their potential pedagogical implications.