Inclusive education under SDG 4: policy enactment and the governance of selective inclusion

Inclusive education is a central commitment within contemporary global education agendas, particularly under Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). However, the ways in which these commitments are interpreted and enacted in practice remain uneven, especially within decentralised education systems. This study examines how inclusive education policies associated with SDG 4 are interpreted and enacted by education stakeholders in Indonesia, and how global governance logics shape local implementation. Using qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 37 education stakeholders at district and school levels, the study adopts a policy enactment perspective to analyse how inclusion is translated, negotiated and enacted through everyday administrative and educational practices. The findings show that while inclusive education is widely framed as a normative and rights-based commitment, its implementation is mediated by administrative rationalities, accountability demands and institutional resource constraints. Rather than reflecting simple implementation gaps, selective and uneven forms of inclusion emerge as structured outcomes of governance arrangements that prioritise measurability, feasibility and administrative accountability. The study provides an empirically grounded account of how global governance logics embedded in SDG 4 are enacted within Indonesia’s decentralised education system and demonstrates how these governance processes generate selective inclusion through stakeholder interpretation and policy enactment. These findings contribute to ongoing scholarship on global education governance and policy enactment while highlighting the importance of aligning global commitments to inclusive education with local institutional realities.