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This article introduces and discusses a theoretically and empirically founded integrated framework model of the principal's leadership role for inclusive education. Leadership is widely discussed as a key factor for success in inclusive education. Additional systematic research efforts are required with respect to this topic, particularly in the context of the German school system. This study analyses principals' leadership roles in one German federal state. Interviews were conducted with fifteen school principals from schools that are assigned to implement inclusive education. Findings from the qualitative content analysis draw a complex picture that is summarised in an integrated framework model. This model addresses (1) the multilevel hierarchical character of the school system and (2) the role of social discourse in shaping principals' perspectives. This model integrates different theoretical approaches such as the four-frame model of leadership orientation, the theory of recontextualisation, and educational governance to describe principal leadership and its contribution for inclusive education.
The article raises the question of whether and how education systems produce social differences internally rather than reproducing pre‐existing “external” inequalities. Linking Niklas Luhmann’s theory of inclusion/exclusion with Charles Tilly’s theory of categorical inequalities, and based on empirical data from various qualitative studies, the article identifies an “observation regime” epistemically constituting the social classification of students and legitimising organisational closure mechanisms in the school system. As an alternative to the “reproduction paradigm,” a research approach guided by differentiation theory is proposed that takes into account that educational inequality operationally arises on the “inside” of the educational system and is caused by unequal inclusion processes.