Strategies to build capacity for inclusion are largely collaborative and operate across the professional continuum of teachers and specialist staff. Collaborative approaches, across school levels and agencies at community or national/regional level, show various opportunities for teacher professional learning (TPL) for inclusion. However, more cross-sectoral and career-long co-operation is needed.
To build capacity for TPL for inclusion, policy develops strategies and guidelines to:
- support collaboration between schools and higher education institutions;
- build strong leadership teams;
- develop quality assessment plans;
- enhance co-operation between ministries, local authorities, universities and other agencies or networks to strengthen TPL for inclusion policy.
To implement and sustain TPL for inclusion, adequate and cost-effective funding mechanisms are needed, such as financial incentives, flexible resourcing mechanisms and systematic data collection on expenditure. Finally, a comprehensive accountability framework is needed to monitor TPL for inclusion and to address inequalities in access.
This was a main finding of phase 1 of the Teacher Professional Learning for Inclusion project, outlined in the Final Summary Report. For more information on this project, visit the project web area.