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AGENCY eBULLETIN March 2017
This issue of the newsletter brings you news about major developments from Agency projects and activities. The Agency welcomes Bulgaria as a new member country, which makes our organisation a platform for collaboration and networking for 30 member countries.
A new web area on the Agency website presents data tables from the Agency’s data collection activity. For this work, data on all pupils in compulsory education and participation in inclusive settings has been examined.
A new publication is available now as an output of the Inclusive Early Childhood Education project. Within the framework of the Raising the Achievement of All Learners in Inclusive Education project, a series of visits have been finalised in the three learning communities in the United Kingdom (Scotland), Italy and Poland.
In the past few months, the Agency participated in a peer-counselling activity in Romania, and has also made headway in its Country Policy Review and Analysis work, with results now available for France, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, UK–England and UK–Scotland.
Norway has had a pioneering role in the Financing Policies for Inclusive Education Systems project, as in November 2016 it organised the first of six Country Study Visits.
Scroll down to find out more about Agency and member country activities.
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Bulgaria Is Joining the Agency
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The Agency is pleased to welcome Bulgaria as its 30th member country! Over time, Bulgaria has participated in some Agency activities as an observer, including the European Hearing in 2007.
Inclusion is high on the agenda in Bulgaria. In December, the Agency took part in the 2016 Annual Inclusive Education Conference, organised by the Centre for Inclusive Education, Bulgaria, in partnership with UNICEF Bulgaria. In his opening speech, Diyan Stamatov, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Education and Science, informed participants that Bulgaria will join the Agency in 2017. He emphasised that, thanks to the joint efforts of policy-makers, experts, teachers and the non-governmental sector, the new Bulgarian Pre-School and School Education Act is driven by the principle of inclusive education.
More information and contacts for this new member country will be available on the Country Information section of the Agency website.
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Factors Ensuring Quality in Inclusive Early Childhood Education
A new report has been published as an outcome of the Inclusive Early Childhood Education (IECE) project. This report presents the findings of a qualitative analysis of 32 examples of inclusive practice in early childhood education across Europe. As an outcome of this analysis, a new Ecosystem Model of quality IECE was developed based on the main themes and subthemes identified in the examples.
The Inclusive Early Education project
The project running between 2015 and 2017 set out to meet the following aim: to identify, analyse and subsequently promote the main characteristics of quality inclusive pre-primary education for all pupils from three years old to the start of primary education.
Of the 32 examples received, eight countries were selected for case study visits. These took place in 2016, with the participation of a variety of stakeholders. Participants in the case study visits had the opportunity to see early childhood education activities and an inclusive approach in practice. The project team observed that in an inclusive setting, all children are encouraged to actively participate in daily activities, and the curriculum addresses the holistic development and needs of all children.
Some of the main success factors observed during these case study visits include, among others, the need for:
- clear and common vision on inclusion,
- strong and distributed leadership,
- staff commitment,
- flexible curriculum with an emphasis on both academic and social skills,
- outdoor activities and learning by playing,
- family involvement,
- and co-operation with all stakeholders at local level.
The analysis in the recently published report shines a new light on the major processes in which children are directly involved and which most influence each child’s participation and learning. The report ‘Inclusive Early Childhood Education: An analysis of 32 European examples’ is available for download on the Agency website.
For more information on the outcomes of this project and for the description of all the examples, visit the project web area.
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EASIE Data Web Area Launched
The Agency’s new Data web area is now live. This area contains data tables and country background information from the 2012/2013 school year, which were collected during the 2014 European Agency Statistics on Inclusive Education (EASIE) activities. It presents the available quantitative and qualitative country information in an accessible, interactive and easily comparable way. A Methodology Report that places the EASIE work into a clear context has also been published.
Further EASIE information will be added as it becomes available. This will include the 2012/2013 data analysis report in early 2017, as well as the data series for the 2014/2015 school year.
The current EASIE work has built upon a series of Agency activities conducted since 1999. This was when the Agency first collected comparative quantitative data, which focused on the percentage of pupils identified as having special educational needs (SEN) and the percentage educated in separate special schools. Questions were later added about the number of pupils with SEN in special classes in mainstream schools and the number enrolled in inclusive mainstream settings. The quantitative data was accompanied by background (qualitative) information from countries, consisting of a description of the compulsory age phase, clarification of public/private sector education and the country’s legal definition of SEN.
The EASIE work has shifted away from the emphasis of the Agency’s past data collection. Instead of focusing on pupils with SEN in segregated settings, it examines all pupils in compulsory education and participation in inclusive settings. The work’s agreed goal is to provide individual country, comparative and aggregated data that informs country-level work on learners’ rights issues and informs debates on equity and participation in inclusive education. Operational definitions of an official decision of SEN and of an inclusive setting were identified and agreed upon in order to make country data comparable.
For further information, please refer to the EASIE Methodology Report and explore the country data and background information.
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Learning Communities Promoting Inclusivity
Three Learning Communities (LCs) from Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom (Scotland) were selected to participate in the Agency's Raising the Achievement of All Learners in Inclusive Education project. In 2015, project participants visited the three sites to meet key stakeholders and to engage in dialogue. This provided a stimulus for the schools to plan a range of activities relating to the project themes of pedagogy, leadership and collaboration. In 2016, a second visit with the same group of project participants followed, with the purpose of learning from the LC experiences and the work completed.
During the second visit in Poland, the school closed down completely, allowing 140 people to participate in a conference there. This event involved initial presentations and four parallel workshops on key issues relevant to the school (i.e. leadership, subject teachers, support teachers, individual educational and therapeutic planning). The meetings were an opportunity to discuss the school’s current challenges and new priorities, such as supporting staff development and building a local and national co-operation network with different stakeholders and institutions. On the third day of the visit, the school also participated in a Ministry of National Education conference, showcasing its work as a good example of inclusivity in practice in Poland. The conference presented work on inclusion at the European level, aiming to inform further development in Poland.
The second visit in Scotland gave Calderglen High School the opportunity to present its work on raising achievement. This includes implementing the ‘growth mindset’ approach to learning, working with parents to deliver in-service training and developing a relevant curriculum which leads to qualifications for different learners. On the first day of the visit, stakeholders led workshops on the practical activities undertaken and the emerging findings. On the second day, workshops focused on learning community questions, challenges and further development, with contributions from all project participants, as well as students and teachers. On the last day, delegates from across Scotland, including people from local education authorities, were informed about the project, the workshop outcomes and different country perspectives on key issues.
The second visit in Italy involved presentations from the LCs and inclusion experts from two Universities in Rome who have been working with the schools on a regular basis. It also involved workshops on key issues relevant for the two Italian LCs, such as: adapting the curriculum and pedagogy, collaborating with different professionals and working with parents and the local community. During workshops, project experts and staff from the LCs discussed the successes and the challenges that informed further work and priorities. On the third day of the visit, the project’s emerging findings and policy implications were presented at a conference in the Italian Ministry of Education. This conference concluded with a panel discussion, in which a range of stakeholders – including policy-makers and people with disabilities – shared their opinions and experiences around inclusion.
The Raising Achievement project is still underway and will conclude with a final meeting in April 2017. Positive outcomes appear to be emerging in the areas of pedagogy, leadership and collaboration and various project outputs are being developed to support work to raise the achievement of all learners.
For more information about this project, visit the project web area.
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Country Policy Review and Analysis Work
The Agency’s Country Policy Review and Analysis (CPRA) activity started in 2015, involving eight member countries. This work has been developed in order to provide a new form of individualised country information, the results of which have now been published.
The goal of the CPRA work is to aid country reflection regarding the development of policy for inclusive education. Over time, these activities aim to provide member countries with information about their progress in relation to key policy goals for inclusive education. The results of the pilot work were presented in spring 2016 at a working meeting, where country representatives discussed how to extend the country policy review and analysis activities to all member countries.
The policy review work identified agreed benchmarks within special needs and inclusive education that countries can aspire to and align themselves with, no matter what systems of educational provision and support they have. The methodology of this work was laid out in a recently published report.
The first results of the policy analysis are available for France, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, UK–England and UK–Scotland on the CPRA project web area.
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Peer Counselling Activity in Romania
The official number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in Romanian schools is over 60,000. However, the real figure is most likely much higher. Research in the field shows that a series of limiting factors affects the inclusion of learners with SEN in mainstream schools. During their initial training, teachers are not sufficiently prepared to work with learners with different types and degrees of special needs, nor to adapt the curriculum and their teaching strategies to learners’ individual psychological potential.
To address this, the Romanian Ministry of National Education and Research, Technological Development and Innovation, together with the European Commission, organised the Peer Counselling activity entitled Support services for children with SEN integrated into mainstream schools – an integrated approach. This was a best practice exchange between specialists in Romania and six other EU member states
Peer learning in the context of education co-operation at EU level is a method of observing both positive and negative examples of policy reforms adopted in other countries in order to draw lessons from them. Agency Representative Board members from six member countries – namely Belgium (Flemish Community), Czech Republic, France, Germany, Latvia and Slovenia – took part in the activity, providing external advice for Romania’s process of policy development in the field of inclusive education.
The main question for discussion was how prepared the educational system is for the access of learners with SEN, considering legislation, resources, classroom management, techniques and attitudes at the community level. The results of the event contributed to a roadmap for designing a training module for mainstream teachers’ initial education.
The Peer Counselling activity took place on 18–19 October 2016, with the participation of foreign experts, teachers from mainstream schools, inclusion specialists, school leaders, government representatives and university professors in the field of inclusion.
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