Rethinking Artificial Intelligence for inclusion and disability support. Trajectories and trends of italian pedagogical research

The paper explores Italian pedagogical scientific literature to examine the rela-tionship between artificial intelligence (AI), disability, and inclusion. Through a scoping re-view, emerging themes in the academic debate are identified, highlighting both progress and critical issues. The research focuses on articles published between 2014 and 2024 in Italian Class A journals (ANVUR, sector 11/D), selecting only open-access publications to ensure maximum accessibility. Following the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) framework, thematic and methodological trends were analyzed to answer three key questions: 1) the growth of studies on AI applied to inclusion, 2) the predominant research methods, and 3) the main areas of investigation. The analysis reveals a progressive increase in publications up to 2024 and a more mature critical debate. The findings indicate a predominance of theoreti-cal-epistemological approaches, with limited empirical studies. Results suggest a growing openness to intelligent digital ecosystems for personalized education, with increasing atten-tion to ethical implications but a less developed focus on disability.