Setting the scene: Measurement and learning beyond the mainstream

To contextualise the debates in this issue, the introduction problematises terms and approaches to the measurement of non-mainstream learning, at different levels of analysis and in different parts of the world. Mindful of the issues to be addressed in the papers to come, it introduces narratives of inclusion, intervention coherence and management styles, before examining their implications for the achievement of cross-national understandings of what may be the new mainstream of educational processes and effects. It concludes by outlining the contributions in this issue.