Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

JAMK University of Applied Sciences, member of the LPG in Jyväskylä (Finland)  led by include-ed Network founding partner Kynnys ry organized an International Inclusion Day under the theme ‘Inclusive Education in Vocational Education & Training’ on Monday, 24th November, 2014 as part of the first pilot Inclusive Education Week 2014 organised by the incluD-ed Network. Mrs. Maija Hirvonen, Principal Lecturer at JAMK University of Applied Sciences, welcomed all participants giving insights on the current research at the institution and perspectives on the development of inclusion in VET. The International Inclusion Day ‘Inclusive Education in Vocational Education & Training’ was held in Lutakko Campus in Jyväskylä and all the presentations were kept in English.

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• > Professor Tony Booth, University of Cambridge, on the “Index of Inclusion”
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Professor Tony Booth from the University of Cambridge gave the first presentation on the “Index of Inclusion” by Prof. Booth and Mr. Ainscow, a kind of practical guidebook for cities and countries with materials designed to build on the wealth of knowledge and experience people have about their inclusion practice. He underlined that schools can integrate “The Index” into their planning process by structuring a detailed review of the school or other settings and its relationship to communities and environments, involving staff, governors, parents or carers and children. Many people find that their own notion of inclusion becomes clearer as they engage with the practical starting points of the Index, its indicators and questions.
 
Action plans are developed, followed through, and reviewed for further development. The review is considered along three dimensions:

1.) Cultures - Cultures reflect relationships and deeply held values and beliefs

2.) Policies - policies are concerned with how the school is run and has plans to change it

3.) Practices - practices are about what is learnt and taught and how it is learnt and taught.

Change in schools and other settings becomes inclusive development when it is based on inclusive values. The Index provides a model for the way educational development in settings that can arise from deeply held values. A careful piecing together of a framework of values has resulted in a list of headings concerned with equality, rights, participation, community, respect for diversity, sustainability, non-violence, trust, compassion, honesty, courage, joy, love, hope/optimism, and beauty. The significance of any particular heading can be tested by imagining what education would be like without it. Education settings are always changing, in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons.
 
Since the Index was published a sixteenth value heading, wisdom has been added following engagement with a number of other values frameworks. Although the Index for Inclusion was produced for English schools, it has been adapted for use in many other countries and translated into forty languages.

 

• > Dr. Leena Kaikkonen, Head of Research and Development, and Ms. Sirkku Purontaus, Principal, Central Ostrobothnia Vocational College, on the “Roadmap for Inclusion in VET - Finnish Experiences”
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The main theme of Dr. Leena Kaikkonen, Head of Research and Development, and Ms. Sirkku Purontaus, Principal, Central Ostrobothnia Vocational College, was ‘Roadmap for Inclusion in VET - Finnish Experiences’. The project TILE (Towards Inclusive Learning Environments in Vocational Education and Training, 2011 – 2013), was coordinated by JAMK, Finland, other partners were Czech Republic, Estonia and England. The purpose was to develop and pilot a Roadmap for the Inclusion of students with special educational needs in VET learning environments. The Roadmap was piloted in Kokkola Vocational Institute in spring 2013. They wanted to know if the Institute is a supportive learning environment for all learners.
 
Organizational structure in the institute was changed since January 2014, so there was need for re-assessment and to hear views of other staff members, like heads, student counsellors, SENCOs. Results are still under analysis, but teachers and other staff both strongly agree that discrimination of any form is seen as unacceptable, and the college actively tries to minimize it. Other staff seems to have more positive beliefs of involving students and their parents into planning and learning processes. Both groups consider that collaboration among staff needs more encouragement in order to promote even more open interaction.

 

• > Dr. Sheena Bell, Senior lecturer, and Helen Trory, University of Northampton, UK, on the ‘Perspectives on inclusion in current vocational education and higher education settings in England’
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The presentation theme of Dr. Sheena Bell, , Senior lecturer, and Helen Trory, University of Northampton, UK and Helen Trory, University of Northampton, UK, was ‘Perspectives on inclusion in current vocational education and higher education settings in England’. Inclusion has today an international agenda. There is wider communication not only between educators around the world, but between populations and individuals. Colleges of Further Education (FE) offer Higher Education (HE) courses and Universities are creating their own University Technical Colleges. HE is moving to closer links with workplace and is offering widening range of vocational courses.
 
Awareness of special educational needs and disability (SEND) has increased, and the society is more inclusive. Attitudes to disability and SEN have changed, but political movements, fuelled by right wing politics, may be threats to inclusion. Standards in United Kingdom are raising, FE vocational students must now all take English and maths exams and achieve an A-C grade at GCSE (The General Certificate of Secondary Education) English and maths exams. The government has not asked critical questions about the extent to which the curriculum and the achievement agenda contribute to disengagement, failure and exclusion. However, following these standards agenda is a high risk strategy for inclusion.
 
Successive English governments seem to be very interested in maths achievement in the Pisa Survey. China’s poorest beat best English pupils. Children of factory workers and cleaners in Far East achieve better exam results than offspring of British lawyers and doctors. The UK performs around the average in mathematics and reading and above average in science, but In England these quotes from Pisa are less likely to hit the headlines A false focus upon raising standards which is founded only upon a narrow range of academic outcomes insults the intelligence of teachers. They know that an educated individual can do more than pass examinations and regurgitate facts. Inclusion and raising standards are incompatible if we choose to adopt the interpretation of these terms made by politicians.
 
Recent government policies have been a significant impact on practice. The Equality Act 2010 strengthened the rights of people with SEND in education and the workplace, New Code of Practice for SEN up to 25 years included guidance how to achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes. We need more responsibility for institutions rather than funding for individuals. We shall ensure that disabled students are able to make use of and develop their talents through higher education and that there is no cap on their aspirations. The Disabled Student Allowances system of support responds to the needs of their disabled-student body.
 
Government proposes to collect and publish data about all FE colleges, but despite national policies, learning environments and SEN practices in colleges of FE vary enormously. We need measuring and supporting impact of projects such as the Roadmap, working in partnership in universities and colleges of VET, working in international partnerships. It’s important to empower people with SEND to become involved with the inclusion debate. It’s necessary to make observations about schooling’s inclusiveness.

 

• > Mr. Cheng-Yu Pan, PhD student, University of Jyväskylä, on “Profiling Today’s Special Educational Needs Teachers in Finnish Inclusive Vocational Institutions”
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In his presentation Mr. Cheng-Yu Pan, PhD student, University of Jyväskylä, was ‘Profiling Today’s Special Educational Needs Teachers in Finnish Inclusive Vocational Institutions’. More than 50% of young Finns choose VET as their secondary level studies. His objective is to gain an interpretative understanding of their role as a whole in Finland. The theoretical framework applied in this research is social inclusion, particularly the significance of education as means for social inclusion of young people and the role of pedagogy and teachers in realizing and promoting inclusion. Transitions from school to work and in the case of this study, from VET to work, are challenging. His research is part of the comparative research with a qualitative approach to Vocational education and training in Finland and Taiwan.
 
In-depth semi-structured interviews in English were conducted via Skype or face-to-face in 2012 and 2013 with 11 SEN-teachers working in different inclusive vocational schools across Finland. Both a consent form and English-Finnish interview guidelines were sent to each interviewee before the interview was done. All interviews were recorded, and the verbatim transcripts were emailed to every interviewee for accuracy checking. The following themes were covered in the interviews: 1) Professional identity, 2) Job involvement, 3) Professional ethics, 4) Continuing professional development, 5) Professional relationship, 6) Retaining tendency, and 7) Other comments on contemporary special needs education in VET. Thematic analysis is undertaken for further interpretation of the data.
 
Preliminary findings show that the work of SEN-teachers in Finnish inclusive vocational schools heavily relies on intensive communication and collaboration, and it is no longer merely tackling students’ learning problems. The role of SEN-teachers in VET is gradually and fundamentally transforming in a more all-round and complicated direction. The school leadership varies from one school to another, which results in different implementation quality of special needs education and the autonomy of SEN-teachers. Changes inside and outside school caused by the global economic depression inevitably are giving rise to teachers’ uncertainty about the future for themselves and their students. Radical reforms of teacher education and educational leadership in response to the rapidly changing context are suggested.

 

• > Ceyhun Servi, PhD student from İnönü University, about the “Inclusion process in Turkey”
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Ceyhun Servi, PhD student from İnönü University, Malatya, Türkey, told about Inclusion process in Turkey. He describes that the Diagnosis process is similar to USA. Typically the child is assessed when the parent or the teacher becomes aware of developmental delay. Child-Mother Health Centers provide health services, but they do not screen properly for developmental disabilities and tools that are limited. Before diagnosis there are different arrangements (like home-based intervention programs, classroom managements and educational programs).
 
If those arrangements do not work, medical diagnosis is made by medical doctors and other professionals. The diagnosis includes the assessment process in medical, psychosocial and educational fields in order to determine the characteristics in all developmental field and interests of the individuals who need special education. With a diagnosis, he/she can get free special education, 2 sessions (45 mins, per a week, from private special education centers, Guidance and Research Centers), financial aid and medical support. For children three to six years, special education services are based on inclusion and mainstreaming, but the mainstreaming percentages are very low. The level of services is very limited compared to recommended educational standards. For example, families get less information from informal assessment tools.
 
Special education regulations require schools to develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each student with special needs, regardless of being educated in inclusive settings or not. It is important to point out that inclusion is not a place or a service-delivery model. In fact, inclusion is an educational approach in which all students have the right to be valued and make progress in the curriculum.
 
Special education covers children between the ages of 0 - 18 who show some differences from other children because of their physical, mental, psychological, emotional or social characteristics and cannot, therefore, benefit from the regular education services. Educational services are provided in special education schools to children and young people in five groups (the sight impaired, the hearing impaired, the orthopedic impaired, the mentally impaired and children with long-term illness). Students with disabling conditions such as severe and profound mental handicaps, hearing loss, visual impairments, and autism are typically educated in schools serving only the disabled or in centers overseen by the Turkish Ministry of Education.
 
There are students, who can participate in full-time or part-time inclusion. During part-time inclusion, students receive some classes in a separate classroom alongside students with special needs, and other classes with their peers without special needs in a regular classroom. And there are special needs class rooms in mainstream schools. Turkey has taken several major steps to increase the quality of educational services for students with special needs and to promote inclusive education. A nationwide educational integration programme is being extended.
 
The percentage of individuals with disabilities in Turkey is 12.29 %. There were 71,142 students in inclusive classrooms in primary schools and 5062 students in inclusive classrooms in high schools and 15,712 students in special education classrooms in general education schools (school year 2009 – 2010). Thus, 76,204 students in total enjoy the opportunity of education through integration. However, difficulties are being experienced and it’s necessary to take a step from legislation to practice, from evaluation to programs. For education of the disabled children with their peers in the same classroom, we have to make remove many physical barriers and make other arrangements. Other problems are ignorance and negative attitudes to disability and inclusion by teachers, other parents and their non-disabled children.

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Professor Tony Booth summarized the seminar day. Cooperation is more international today, and it’s important to discuss educational inclusion between educators. For me the seminar provided an opportunity to hear thematic presentations that introduced inclusive education and meet people from educational field. Additionally, it was opportunity to presents the IncluD-ed network with posters and other material.