Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

Annett Räbel represented the European Network of Inclusive Education & Disability, incluD-ed, at the International Conference "Braga 2014: Embracing Inclusive Approaches For Children And Youth With Special Needs", organised by Division of International Special Education and Services (DISES), co-sponsored by the University of Minho on 14-17 July 2014 in Braga, Portugal. The Division of International Special Education and Services (DISES), a division of the Council for Exceptional Children, promotes knowledge, exchange, collaboration, human rights and advocacy to those who provide services for individuals with disabilities -- across all age groups, from infancy through adulthood.

The aim of the conference was to discuss about the current state of the expertise in meeting the needs of children and youth with special educational needs according to the conference theme “Embracing Inclusive Approaches.”  Next to several keynote speeches, lively and informed discussions on topic areas ranging from research, practice, policy, advocacy and to the arts in special education took place. Maria-Antonia Casanova, expert of the incluD-ed network, had also been invited to deliver a keynote speech on the topic of inclusive education.

The conference brought together over 450 academics, researchers and practitioners, policy makers, and NGOs from around the world, mainly from the USA, Brazil and Portugal.

The objective of incluD-ed’s participation was to present the network, specifically our policy actions, as means of supporting legislative actions towards a more inclusive Europe and to encourage European experts in the field and organisations present at the conference the possibility to become part of its virtual community.

incluD-ed achieved its objectives in participating at the Conference:

• - The network spoke to Humberto Rodriguez, Chair of the conference, President of the Division of International Special Education and Services (DISES) as well as organiser of the DISES 2014 conference about the networks’ work and those of its partner organisations.
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• - incluD-ed spoke furthermore to David Rodrigues from the University of Porto, invited keynote speaker at the Braga 2014 conference. incluD-ed invited him to join the incluD-ed virtual community as an expert and he was also very interested in joining the network as an associated member being the President of the Portuguese Pró Inclusão Association, the National Association of Special Education Teachers in Portugal.
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• - Networking among conference participants was done. In this sense, many of the participant experts were invited to become part of our virtual community. Individual contact will follow this invitation in order to integrate them into our network - such Sofia Santos (University of Portugal), Clarisse Nunes (Polytechnic of Lisbonne), Carmen Feldhaus (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg) as well as Juergen Kuehl (Hochschule Emden) from Germany to join the network as experts.

 

The network presented its work on the gathering of best practices as well as its views on the lines of policy incidence at the conference to the different speakers and participants and highlighted especially the recent successes at European level such as the first ‘Conference on Inclusive Education and Disability in Europe’.

The network confirmed its thematic priorities as central for the inclusive education discussion. According to the evidence and experience that was shared as well as the new challenges that were identified, incluD-ed confirms that its working lines are well defined and are placed at the forefront of the inclusive education discussion.