November 2010

Dear Readers,

In this issue of the Agency bulletin we would like to inform you about developments regarding current Agency projects. 

In addition to the Teacher Education for Inclusion and Vocational Education and Training project, which are part of the Agency Work Programme, the Agency is currently involved in three projects partly supported by the Comenius Accompanying Measures Programme and in co-operation with UNESCO, UNESCO International Bureau of Education (UNESCO-IBE), UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) and the Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD). 

We would also like to share information on two new Agency Resources and two Agency events: the Early Childhood Intervention Seminar organised by the Portuguese Ministry of Education and a meeting with the with EU Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou and General Director Jan Truszczynski of the European Commission.

For regular updates on Agency news we would like to invite you to sign up to our RSS Newsfeed. To sign up, please visit www.european-agency.org and select the link ‘subscribe to Agency news’. 

Sincerely,
The Agency

1. European Efforts to Promote Inclusive Education 
2. Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Thematic Seminar
3. New Resources
4. Teacher Education for Inclusion (TE4I)
5. Vocational Education and Training (VET): Policy and Practice in the field of SNE
6. Inclusive Education in Action (IEA)
7. Mapping the Implementation of Policy for Inclusive Education (MIPIE)
8. Information and Communication Technology in Education for People with Disabilities
9. Contacts and Disclaimer

1. European efforts to promote inclusive education

On 15 November, Chairman Jørgen Greve and Director Cor Meijer of the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education met with EU Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou and General Director Jan Truszczynski of the European Commission. The meeting was to inform Commissioner Vassiliou and General Director Truszczynski of the Agency’s work programme priorities and formally invite them to the European Hearing for young people with and without disabilities that the Agency will organise in the European Parliament, 5-7 November 2011.

The Commission representatives are very aware of the member countries’ priorities as reflected in the Council 2020 objectives and how the Agency’s work programme supports these priorities. They are well informed of the Agency’s activities and they consider the countries’ collective and national efforts to investigate and promote approaches to inclusive education across Europe very important.

Commissioner Vassiliou explicitly highlighted the importance of advancing learning environments where learners with special educational needs are not just physically included, but are actively participating in mainstream classroom learning opportunities. She is also very dedicated to the concept of active family involvement and she is keen to learn more about the outcomes of the co-operation among countries that is facilitated by the Agency within in the field of special needs and inclusive education.

For further information on this issue, please contact secretariat@european-agency.org 

2. Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Thematic Seminar

The Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) seminar took place during the Agency’s bi-annual meeting, on 12 November in Lisbon, with approximately 70 European and 40 Portuguese participants. The thematic seminar was officially opened by Ms Isabel Alçada, Portuguese Minister of Education, who presented the main issues facing the ECI system in Portugal. The focus of our seminar was the importance of planning and delivering ECI services as early as possible and as near as possible to the children and families in need, to ensure efficiency and maximum outcome.

The thematic seminar presented the outcomes and fostered discussions on the Agency’s Early Childhood Intervention update project (2009–2010). The aim of the update project was to build upon the main outcomes of the first Agency analysis and provide an overview of the main progress and developments at the European level in the area of Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) since 2005. These developments are general and relate to five key elements – availability, proximity, affordability, interdisciplinary working and diversity – identified as essential factors within the model of ECI proposed in the 2005 Agency study. 

According to the man outcomes of the project analysis, reinforced by the panel’s discussions, it can be said that:

• Positive changes have occurred since 2005 regarding the five key elements identified in the area of ECI: availability, proximity, affordability, interdisciplinary work and diversity and co-ordination. 
• Progress has been made regarding implementation and monitoring of policy measures in the area of ECI, as a significant number of Acts, Regulations, Decrees and similar policy measures have been adopted since 2004–2005.
• There is still need for improvement of co-operation and coordination within sectors as well as a need for the establishment of a statutory framework to promote co-ordination and overcome difficulties across sectors.
• There is a need to create family focused and responsive services that work for children and families and involve parents at every level of planning and developing ECI services for their children.
• Quality and equality standards of provision need to be developed that clearly define quality standards for ECI services and provisions to improve the effectiveness of ECI services and ensure the same quality of service provision nationwide, despite geographical differences.

You can find more details on the ECI project and ECI update project on the Agency web. There you will find recommendations, summaries on progress and legislative developments, descriptions on ECI in different European countries as well as references and articles of publications of interest.

3. New Resources

“Key Principles for Promoting Quality in Inclusive Education – Recommendations for Policy Makers” is a document which has been prepared by educational policy makers in order to provide other policy makers across Europe with a synthesis of the main policy findings that have emerged from the Agency thematic work supporting the inclusion of learners with different types of special educational needs (SEN) within mainstream provision. This edition draws upon Agency work from 2003 to date. 

Key Principles can be downloaded in 21 languages.

The Agency Flyer, which presents key information about the Agency's organisation, guiding principles and key objective, member countries and contact information is now available. The agency flyer can be downloaded in 21 languages.

The Agency Publications Order Form contains short descriptions of all Agency publications going back to 2002. This form can be used to order publications in the existing languages by ticking the language boxes and filling in the contact details on the first page. Requested publications will be delivered free of charge if the Order Form is posted to the Agency Secretariat. This form can be downloaded in 21 language versions.

4. Teacher Education for Inclusion project (TE4I)

A successful project meeting for the Teacher Education for Inclusion project was held in Zurich in September. In total 48 experts, 13 Agency member country representatives and colleagues from the European Commission, OECD-CERI and UNESCO-IBE attended, with Professor Tony Booth joining as the keynote speaker.

At the conference, the International Literature Review and the Policy Review were presented to the delegates – both can now be downloaded from the project web area.

Country Reports have been received from 27 countries and will be available on the web area soon. The reports will also be presented in a cross-linked database that will allow users to search for particular themes across countries.

Work is also underway on a summary report. This report will identify common issues and challenges and innovative approaches being taken by some countries and will provide emerging recommendations, underpinned by evidence from the country reports, country visits and the literature review. We will also produce a ‘bridging’ document to assist readers to find key information and exemplars contained in the individual reports.

Following the five country study visits, work is continuing on the Profile of Competences. A draft profile was presented for comment at the Zurich conference and we are planning further country study visits in Spring 2011 to validate the profile. 

Please follow our progress and find more general information about the Teacher Education for Inclusion project.

5. Vocational Education and Training (VET): Policy and Practice in the field of SNE

The main focus of the first phase of the Vocational Education and Training Project was to agree upon a common framework and a methodology in order to proceed with the analysis of selected examples of VET country practices. This is being followed by study visits and VET country practice analysis to identify and investigate the key aspects of VET programmes for learners with SEN aged between 14 and 25, with a clear link to employment opportunities. In particular, our objective is not just to understand what works, but also to get a deeper understanding of why it works. In preparation for the case study visits, we selected and formulated the initial description of examples of successful national/local VET programmes for learners with SEN. The selection of VET examples was based on a list of criteria put forward by the nominated project experts during the kick-off meeting.

The initial descriptions of the examples cover the main aspects of the VET programme (e.g. type of institution/organisation, training courses, target group, etc), highlighting the unique elements of the selected programmes. Our aim has been to provide a good understanding of the various VET programmes and assist experts from other participating countries in deciding which examples are more relevant to their work or more interesting for them in terms of their visits. A total of 28 study visits have been scheduled to take place in the course of the 3 year project. 

For further information on the Vocational Education and Training project, please contact secretariat@european-agency.org 

6. Inclusive Education in Action (IEA)

The goal of the IEA project is to provide examples to exemplify the suggested actions described in the UNESCO ‘Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education’ and to show how these can be effectively put into practice. 

The Project Steering Group met at ISEC in Belfast in August, and the website was launched on 1 September with the first 15 examples. On this date, a representative from the Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD) promoted the IEA project at a UN conference in New York.

In addition to the UNESCO guidelines and the examples themselves, further materials are available from the website, including the Project Framework and Rationale document and a Glossary of Terms. 

It has been decided that the project will continue and discussions are now underway with UNESCO-IBE and GPDD on ways forward. As a result, the collection of examples will continue and we would like to invite any users who wish to contribute examples of inclusive practice to download the submission template.

If you would like to stay informed about new examples that have been added to the website we invite you to subscribe to the RSS feed of the Inclusive Education in Action project. 

7. Mapping the Implementation of Policy for Inclusive Education (MIPIE)

The Agency has secured additional funding for a 1-year project exploring ‘Mapping the Implementation of Policy for Inclusive Education’. The project will run from 1 November 2010 to 31 October 2011 and is funded through additional EU funding provided by the European Commission via the Comenius Accompanying Measures programme under the Lifelong Learning Programme.

Policy makers working in inclusive education suggest they need to know what qualitative and quantitative information to collect, and what the best methods of doing this are in order to map the implementation of policies for inclusive education. They need to have agreed signposts to track progress towards educational inclusion, which is a clear priority for all EU member states. The goal for this project will be to provide them with clear proposals on Mapping the Implementation of Policy for Inclusive Education.

The main project activities focus upon two conferences – one in Belgium in 2010, and one in Hungary in 2011 – both of which will be held during the respective countries’ hosting of the Presidency of the EU. Both events will be organised in co-operation with representatives of the Ministries of Education in the two countries.

These events will be used as the main opportunities for information gathering with the target group for the project – that is decision-makers responsible for the implementation of inclusive education policy in the 27 European countries who are members of the Agency.

In addition, representatives of key European institutions and organisations working in the field of policy mapping for mainstream education will join both conferences to present their priorities and work in this field and contribute to the debates with national level policy makers.

For more information, please contact the Agency Secretariat: secretariat@european-agency.org

8. Information and Communication Technology in Education for People with Disabilities

The UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO-IITE) and the Agency are currently working on a joint project to develop a ‘Practice Review’. This will be a major new publication scheduled for early 2011.

The Practice Review will present examples of practice of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with people with disabilities in different educational contexts and settings. The goal of the Review is to highlight key messages and recommendations for policy and practice in this area.

The use of the term ‘people with disabilities’ is understood within the terms of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2006): Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others (p.5).

In order to further explore ICT as a tool in education for learners with disabilities, four possible areas of application of ICT will be covered in the Practice Review:

• (i) Supporting personal access to information and knowledge: ICT as a tool for improving a learner’s access to information and knowledge in formal and non-formal learning situations. 
• (ii) Supporting learning and teaching situations: ICT for pedagogical, didactic uses, assisting in personal, learning development and shaping new skills; ICT as a tool for teachers to support learning.
• (iii) Supporting personal communication: ICT as a tool for alternative/augmentative communication to replace or supplement personal communication barriers; ICT as a tool for overcoming social and/or geographical isolation.
• (iv) Supporting access to educational administrative procedures: ICT as a tool for accessing administrative procedures in organisations; ICT as a tool for administrators to improve their services for learners with disabilities.

In order to collect interesting and applicable examples of practice relating to these four thematic areas, a two-stage approach is being used within the Review. In Phase 1, key professionals working in the field were asked to send outline information, briefly describing an example they would like to be considered for the review. 45 examples from 20 countries across 3 different continents were received as a result of this request.

All the outlines received have been considered for balance in terms of focus, exemplifying the four thematic areas of the Review, geographical spread and coverage of different educational situations. 12 examples have now been selected for more detailed information collection and analysis as part of Phase 2 work. In addition, brief outline information from other interesting examples of practice will be used as a further source of information within the final Practice Review. 

More information on the project is available from: ict@european-agency.org 

9. Contacts and Disclaimer

For more information about the Agency in general or specific projects please contact:

European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education
Østre Stationsvej 33
DK-5000 Odense C
Denmark
Phone: +45 64 41 00 20
Fax: +45 64 41 23 03
E-mail: secretariat@european-agency.org
URL: www.european-agency.org

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The European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education is an independent and self-governing organisation, supported by Agency member countries and the European Institutions (Commission and Parliament). The production of this document has been made possible through support from the Agency member countries as well as the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission.