How inclusive education becomes a community project: a participatory study in the northwest of Spain

This paper shows how a participatory study on inclusive education was designed and developed in a town in the northwest of Spain. The methodology included the development of collaborative inquiries at intra-school, interschool and local levels. It was designed by following the principles of participative and community-based research. This study demonstrates diverse ways in which different educational levels face inclusion; the value of collaboration between agents and institutions for innovative thinking and practice; and the need to develop further and wider research connecting participatory research and community engagement movements to systematic research into inclusive education.