Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

Resumen

The programme aims to create more family-oriented action in childhood education and involve the resources/personnel that already work with the families. Everyone contributes as equal stakeholders.

Families are invited to the school once or twice a week for a period of 8-12 weeks. All the ‘important’ adults connected with the child are directly and actively involved in supporting the child during ordinary activities at the school. They all take responsibility in supporting the child to change dysfunctional behavioural patterns. A common room is provided where 4-5 children, their parents and teachers can discuss matters that occur on the course where they work with goals like ‘I must not disturb my friends’.

Objetivo del proyecto:

Copenhagen is the municipality in Denmark, which has the largest percentage of pupils in special schools.

We wanted to develop methods (in close cooperation with the schools) to involve parents in new ways and avoid situations where parties blame each other for their inefficiency or place responsibility for the child’s problems on either the school or the parents.

Teachers need to develop new methods and strategies to handle children with special needs and support them in terms of pedagogical methods. The Pedagogical Psychological Services (PPR) wanted to develop alternative methods of providing advice and supervising a class or a pupil’s social life.

Metodología

Issues and challenges

The professional stakeholders (teachers and psychologists) have a task in creating the framework for reflection in an atmosphere that is not imposing guilt on anybody but where everybody is entitled to recommend solutions.

It is important that the professionals don’t see parents and children at risk as ‘victims’ but can find glimpses of hope and see resources in them.

The project challenges the traditional teaching role by involving teachers more in these processes. They must follow up on the concrete goals put forward for the child at the course because their support is crucial to obtain positive results.

‘Joint Action’ focuses on systemic, narrative and unified thinking that particularly aims at building relationships. It is therefore important that teachers and PPR psychologists are trained in these new methods.

The main future task will be to make stakeholders understand that external factors are just as important for the child’s well-being as individually oriented provisions. Controlling the child’s behaviour is not enough. By focusing on the interaction between the child, its parents and the learning environment, attention moves from the individual child to the whole system. The effort of the whole system – the school, the school-based leisure activities, the advisory services, the parent support etc. – become crucial for the child’s learning potential and development.

The implementation process

Timescale

2005 – 2006: First project took place at PPR Amager and Peder Lykke School in 2005– 2006

2006 – now: About 10 mainstream schools and 4 special schools have implemented Joint Action or family classes at their schools in Copenhagen.

3 PPR services are now also making joint action programmes for parents and children in kindergartens.

2008 – 2009: There have been presentations for politicians, administration, school leaders, special teachers, psychologists, consultants etc. at two large conferences in Copenhagen.

2007 – 2009: Two videos for professionals have been made.

2008 – 2010: Articles have been published in magazines and presentations shared on home pages of the Special Reform

2010 – 2013: 4 mainstream schools in Inner City/ Østerbro have now implemented / are about to implement Joins Action with parents. Kindergardens in the district are now also offered Joint Action which takes place once a week in Stormgade 18.

The Pedagogical Psychological Services (PPR) / the local administration and the Special Reform programme in Copenhagen worked on and supported the initiative.

There are established networks among the professionals working with families in schools and there is a ‘resource centre’ at one of the Special schools (Flerfamileskolen/ Gl Kalkbrænderivej) where people can get advice and courses.

PPR and the local administration informed the school leaders about the first project and the good results.

PPR financed the introductory courses where teachers, pedagogues, leaders and psychologists were trained in using the new methods before they started the courses. They were from the start supervised by PsykCentrum (external advisers trained at Marlborough family services in London).

The PPR Services and the involved schools in Copenhagen have put a lot of effort in new Joint Action projects, and Joint Action courses are now offered to kindergartens as well as to schools in several districts.

Público objetivo

Teachers, pedagogues, public authorities, psychologists and other professionals working with families in schools, resource centres

Innovaciones de la buena práctica

The ‘Joint Action’ courses take place in different mainstream schools in Copenhagen: in the City of Copenhagen at ‘Den Classenske Legat Skole’, Nyboder Sshool, Kildevældsskolen and Øster Farimagsgade skole and in Amager at ‘Peder Lykke Skolen’. In the city of Copenhagen the target group are mainly school starters with problems with concentration, behaviour (e.g. ADHD) and bonding.

At Amager we see mainly children who seem isolated because of ethnic or social reasons joining the ‘Joint Action’ courses.

The demand for inclusion in mainstream schools is still increasing in Copenhagen, and teachers find it difficult to meet the needs of children whose behaviour might seem difficult to handle. They need concrete tools, and through the project we have learnt that the support of children with difficulties should be given early in close cooperation between all parties involved. Changing a child’s behaviour to achieve a better life in school only happens when all parties, i.e. school management, the parents, the teachers, the pedagogues and the PPR (psychologist) work together and agree to put some common goals in place, in co-operation with the child.

From these experiences we have had an impact on the legislation and the policymaking in the municipality of Copenhagen. The ‘Special Reform’, aims to ensure that fewer children at risk are referred to special schools and treatment than at present.

Children at risk and their families should be part of a coherent action plan and problems must be discovered at an earlier stage. Prevention, not treatment should be the key word even though treatment will of course still be needed in some cases.

Logros de la buena práctica

The key outcomes are that fewer children are referred to special schools and that the mainstream teachers feel that they can manage more children with problems by working together with their colleagues, with the parents and the PPR Services.

The professionals see that early support and interventions prevent problems from escalating among children at risk.

The new interdisciplinary methods challenge the professionals to work together in new ways – e.g. the psychologist must drop her expert position and communicate or transfer her expert and academic skills so it can be linked to the other groups.

It is still a challenge to eliminate ‘exclusive’ attitudes among some of the teachers and get them to see that their contribution is crucial for the child’s development.

Parents who have taken part in Joint Action courses say that they feel they cooperate with people who understand them without judging them.

The results from the Joint Action courses are:

Most of children who have participated in the Joint Action courses with their parents stay in their usual class and are not segregated.

Teachers have discovered new ways of coping with children who are difficult to teach.

All participants are continually assessed in order to ascertain whether the course is making a difference.

 

Project documents:

European Agency has a copy of a video/DVD clip from Peder Lykke Skolen.

PPR in Copenhagen has a copy of video/DVD presentation of ‘Inclusion in the City Copenhagen’ – a 17 minutes video presentation of projects in Danish.

Jette Lentz has written an article about ‘Joint Action’ in 2006 to a Danish magazine for Educational Psychologists: “Fælles Indsats af Jette Lentz / Joint Action; Psykologisk-pædagogisk Rådgivning, 2006, VOL. 43, 349-357. English translation can be required by contacting Jette Lentz.

Kirsten Hansen and Jette Lentz one article to a book about preventive work in the Tchec republic: Joint Actions in : Education of Socially Diasadvanged Pupils, Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2009, 119-127,

European Agency has produced many reports etc. about Joint Action from their visits in Copenhagen 2007-2008.

Socios y otros actores que participan en el proyecto

The Pedagogical Psychological Services (PPR) / the local administration and the Special Reform programme in Copenhagen.

Pædagogisk Psykologis Rådgivning (PPR), Stormgade 18, 1555 København V Telefon: 3366 4477 E-mail: www.kk.dk

Pupils with special educational needs and their parents.

Teachers, pedagogues, leaders and psychologists.

Established networks among the professionals working with families in schools.

‘Resource centre’ at one of the Special schools (Flerfamileskolen Villa Rolighed).

PsykCentrum (external advisers trained at Marlborough family services in London).

Testimonios de participantes

Two of the professionals at the centre of developing this collaborative project – Kirsten Hansen, Development Consultant and Jette Lentz, Leader of the Psychology Service – describe the project in this way: ‘We support local politicians in developing methods and strategies for inclusion within the field of special education in the Children and Youth Department in Copenhagen. The methods applied in our Joint Action project have been disseminated and introduced in, not only in our own district (Inner City), but in schools in other districts of Copenhagen as well. In addition, the psychologists working in the educational-psychological advisory service (PPR) in our district are now using a more holistic approach in their work.’

Evaluación

The first project was evaluated by experts from the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education who visited us in Copenhagen and gave us some good feedback. We also had an external evaluator in the first project at Peder Lykke Skolen.

‘Joint Action’ was chosen as an example of ‘good practice’ in the efforts towards inclusion in Copenhagen. We have presented the project, ideas and our results at large conferences at the Town Hall for school leaders, special teachers and PPR psychologists. We have produced two videos/DVDs about ‘Joint Action’ which show the shift of paradigms and where a child’s development is seen as a function and a result of his/her communication and relations.

‘Joint Action ‘ is evaluated continually by participants, external consultants from the PPR etc. in the schools and institutions.