How Is School Inclusiveness Measured? A Systematic Review of Frameworks, Dimensions, and Indicators

Abstract

Measuring school inclusiveness has become a central concern in global and national education policy, yet the field remains fragmented across many frameworks and instruments that rarely share a common conceptual language. This article reports a systematic literature review (SLR) guided by the PRISMA 2020 protocol on the frameworks, dimensions, and indicators used to assess inclusiveness at the school level. Following a reproducible search of academic sources and grey literature (55 records identified), duplicate removal, and eligibility screening, 20 studies were retained for narrative synthesis. The review shows that most instruments converge on the tripartite logic of the Index for Inclusion—inclusive cultures, policies, and practices—while extending it with leadership, teacher competence, accessibility, student participation and well-being, and family–community collaboration. Indicators cluster into structural, process, relational, and outcome types, and a quality appraisal of the 20 included studies shows that psychometric maturity varies considerably, from near-universal reporting of explicit construct definitions to comparatively rare measurement-invariance and test–retest evidence. Building on this synthesis, the review proposes an integrated conceptual framework linking these dimensions to student participation and well-being as a proximal outcome, and it identifies specific implications for madrasah and pesantren settings, where Islamic normative constructs such as human dignity (karamah insaniyyah), justice ('adl), and compassion (rahmah) offer an underused basis for operationalising the inclusive-culture dimension.