Implementing Universal Design for Learning in European preschools: A cross-national analysis of inclusive education

Universal Design for Learning guidelines version 3.0. strategies and methods assessment for pre-service and in-service teachers.

Data were collected between May and September 2025 across four European countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Portugal. National co-researchers disseminated the survey through professional networks, using convenience and snowball sampling methods. The survey was administered online via Google Forms and took approximately 15–20 minutes to complete. Before data collection, the study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Riga Technical University (Protocol Code 04000-10.2.3-e/26, date of approval: 28 May 2025). All participants were informed about the purpose of the study, the voluntary nature of their participation, and their right to withdraw at any time. Completion of the anonymous survey implied informed consent. No personally identifiable information was collected. All data are reported in aggregate form to ensure participant confidentiality. Survey was created based on CAST Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0 (CAST (2024). CAST Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org) and was adapted and piloted in Latvia in 2025 (Tīģere, I., Bethere, D., Lāma, G., & Daniela, L. (2025). Validating Universal Design for Learning Survey with Latvian Preschool Teachers: A Pilot Study. IAFOR Journal of Education, 13(3), 493–524. https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.13.3.20). The dataset includes survey response files and questionnaires from four countries, a codebook, and a combined dataset containing UDL questionnaire items, demographic questions, as well as additional sections in which grouped variable values have been calculated. More detailed information about the variables, their possible values, and calculation formulas can be found in the codebook.In the UDL section, respondents were able to select multiple answers; these were expressed as the average of all selected responses, rounded to the nearest whole number. Additionally, some respondents did not select any answers for certain questions. The number of such cases was small, and these values were replaced with the median value of the respective question.