JoLIE 18:3/2025

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BOOK REVIEW

Teodora Popescu, Larisa Laura Popa, Diana Avram Șandru. Dimensiuni şi provocări ale educației incluzive: Formare continuă, resurse şi parteneriate comunitare. Alba Iulia: Editura Aeternitas, 2025. Pp. 1-195. ISBN 978-606-613-273-2

Reviewed by Mădălina Rânghet, 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia

The volume Dimensiuni și provocări ale educației incluzive. Formare continuă, resurse și parteneriate comunitare represents a substantial contribution to the contemporary discourse on inclusive education in Romania. Conceived within the framework of a district-level educational project coordinated by Rotary Club Alba Iulia and aligned with recent Romanian educational legislation (notably Law no. 198/2023), the book situates itself at the intersection of educational policy, teacher professional development, and community-based educational reform.

At a time when European and global educational systems are increasingly oriented toward equity, diversity, and inclusion, this volume responds to both international trends and the specific realities of the Romanian educational landscape. The book’s stated aim—to support teachers in developing the competencies necessary for implementing inclusive education—addresses a recognised gap between policy aspirations and classroom-level realities. As such, the volume positions itself not merely as a theoretical contribution, but as a practical and normative guide intended to influence everyday pedagogical practice.

The book emerges from a concrete local initiative but aspires to broader relevance. Its grounding in Romanian legal, institutional, and socio-cultural contexts gives it particular value for national practitioners and policymakers, while its engagement with international literature and conceptual frameworks situates it within wider academic debates on inclusive education.

The structure of the book (Introduction, four chapters and Conclusions) reflects a deliberate attempt to integrate theory, empirical research, and practical guidance. The progression from needs analysis to conceptual clarification, and finally to professional development and community engagement, mirrors a holistic model of educational reform, in which inclusive education is treated not as a narrow pedagogical technique but as a systemic transformation.

Dimensiuni și provocări ale educației incluzive. Formare continuă, resurse și parteneriate comunitare stands as a timely and important contribution to the Romanian educational literature on inclusion. It offers a thoughtful synthesis of theory, policy, empirical insight, and professional reflection. While it does not solve all the structural challenges of implementing inclusive education, it provides a strong intellectual and ethical foundation for future work.

The volume will be of particular value to teacher educators and trainers, school leaders and inspectors, policymakers and educational planners, researchers interested in inclusive education in post-socialist and Eastern European contexts.

Ultimately, the book’s greatest strength lies in its insistence that inclusive education is not merely a technical reform, but a moral, cultural, and systemic transformation. By foregrounding the dignity, diversity, and potential of all learners, the authors contribute meaningfully to the ongoing project of building more equitable and humane educational systems in Romania and beyond.

References

Ainscow, M., Booth, T., & Dyson, A. (2006). Improving schools, developing inclusion. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203967157

Liasidou, A. (2015). Inclusive education and the issue of change: Theory, policy and pedagogy. Palgrave Macmillan.

Mitchell, D. (2005). Contextualizing inclusive education: Evaluating old and new international perspectives. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203606803

Popescu, T., Popa, L.-L., & Avram, D. (2025). Dimensiuni şi provocări ale educației incluzive: Formare continuă, resurse şi parteneriate comunitare. Editura Aeternitas. http://doi.org/10.29302/InclEduDimenChall

Slee, R. (2001). “Inclusion in Practice”: Does practice make perfect? Educational Review, 53(2), 113–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131910120055543

How to cite this review: Rânghet, M. (2025). Teodora Popescu, Larisa Laura Popa, Diana Avram Șandru. Dimensiuni şi provocări ale educației incluzive: Formare continuă, resurse şi parteneriate comunitare. Alba Iulia: Editura Aeternitas, 2025. Pp. 1-195. ISBN 978-606-613-273-2. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 18(3), 165–170. https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2025.18.3.9

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