#Multinclude
Enhance access and participation and promote greater equity. This project is conceived to elicit, promote and disseminate some of those ideas – good IDEAS – that were developed in different parts of the world, in particular in Europe. This project was co-funded bij Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and is a joint-venture of THUAS, Echo, the European School Heads Association, The Knowledge Innovation Centre, Malmö University, Dschola and the Kinderbüro van the University of Wien.
The project Multiplying evidence based strategies for inclusion (#Mult!nclude) aims to contribute to the dissemination of good practices. The social foundation of the European Community is in need for improvement. According to the EC, Europe as an economic and civic entity, as well as the social dimension in European countries is challenged with the disproportionately large flee of refugees to Europe but also with recent attacks in major cities in Europe which has a big impact on the public opinion and the level of tolerance in different European countries towards certain groups in society. The recent happenings will remain a major point of reference in Europe’s history.
Some countries are already diverse in many ways and will become even more diverse. Education systems of respective European countries were not designed for the current population. In superdiverse cities like Paris, The Hague and Brussels there is no majority anymore. These are so-called majority minority cities (Crul 2013). The population in these cities consist of all minority groups. The previous majority also became a quantitative minority. Quantitative diversity is not a guarantee for equal opportunities in education and at the labour market. This quantitative development in combination with growing societal tensions ask for more deliberate action on one hand and a vision on inclusion on the other hand. The declaration on Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education, which is the result of an informal meeting of European Union education ministers in Paris, Tuesday March 17 2015, needs to be implemented successfully.
But policy only is not sufficient. There is a greater need for evidence-based practices from countries and institutions that have been successful in similar developments on one hand and made a sustainable impact on the other hand. There is no need to invent new wheels. There is a great need though to successfully implement tested models of inclusive practices within schools and learning communities, with the aim to achieve impact on an individual, institutional and systematic level. Inclusive pedagogies and methodologies to support reflection processes and teaching and learning are one of the conditions to make a difference for all students in their educational pathway to success as well as their personal journey as responsible citizen in Europe.
Also see:
Approach to Promoting Inclusion
The activities in the project are declined in 6 different pathways:
- DETECT: To understand the landscape of inclusion, we are collecting 70 cases of initiatives which are enhancing access to, participation in and completion of education up to Higher Education, for learners from disadvantaged groups. Learn more
- ANALYSE: We will create a typology of approaches to inclusion, to answer questions such as: What policy elements allow interventions to thrive? What organizational policies lead to success? Which methodologies have the highest effectiveness and efficiency? Learn more
- EXCHANGE: We are creating a learning community which will consist of a magazine-style blog allow you to tell your own stories, a social network, a resource database and a series of webinars to highlight cases of best practice. Learn more
- IMPACT: We are creating a scoring matrix for inclusion strategies, which will allow schools to evaluate the scope, comprehensiveness, and effectiveness of their inclusion strategies and make changes accordingly. Learn more
- MULTIPLY: We will transfer the lessons learned on inclusive practices in schools to teachers, through the creation of a freely available online course which will train teachers on how to use their school’s inclusion strategies as starting points to improve inclusive practices in the classroom. Learn more
- INSPIRE: Our outreach programme will inform the general public about successful interventions for inclusion, while reaching out to academics and experts in the field, for the purpose of promoting our work, and have them adopt it and take it further. Learn more