incluD-ed is working on the pilot study “Quality Factors of Inclusive Education in Europe. An Exploration.”
Thu, 16/04/2015
Since November 2014, the incluD-ed network is working on the pilot study “Quality Factors of Inclusive Education in Europe. An Exploration”. The study aims to explore the quality of inclusive processes in inclusive schools in several European countries, taking into account elements relating to culture, policies and practices as well as elements relating to available human and material resources. Inclusive education, with its overall objective to meet the common and special needs of students, is a demanding process in which these two types elements combine. The pilot study will be conducted in the four European countries of incluD-ed‘s founding members (Spain, France, Finland and Czech Republic) as well as in Austria, the UK, Ireland and Iceland where incluD-ed counts with associated member organisations.
Jorge Calero Martinez, renowned expert on inclusive education from the University of Barcelona (Spain) leads the theoretical and analytical part of the study. incluD-ed network expert Maria-Antonia Casanova and the incluD-ed Network Secretariat are responsible for validation and practical aspects of the study such as the selection of school samples that will respond to the study’s questionnaire. The study, under the overall coordination of the incluD-ed leading team at Fundación ONCE will be the final publication of the incluD-ed network that will finish in its current form in December 2015.
The idea behind
The idea for the study on “Quality Factors of Inclusive Education” came up at the last network meeting in Helsinki (Finland) in May 2014 where the network partners had among others the chance to visit an inclusive Finish school. Based on this experiences¡, they felt the need to have some kind of indicators that would allow comparing trends in inclusive education in Europe.
In recent years, indices that allow assessing the level of inclusiveness of schools in terms of aforementioned elements relating to culture, policies and practices like the “Index for Inclusion” by Booth and Ainscow have been established. Their application to real environments is nevertheless still very limited. In terms of elements relating to resources, information about their availability in schools is scarce. The very definition of support resources that are appropriate for the realization of the right to inclusive education requires an analysis that still needs to be done. As the incluD-ed network counts with a variety of founding partners and associated members from a total of nine European countries, the idea to do a pilot study in schools throughout Europe arose.
In November 2014, incluD-ed could convince Jorge Calero Martinez to join the incluD-ed pilot study project team composed by incluD-ed expert Maria-Antonia Casanova and Martine Aitken and Annett Räbel from the incluD-ed Network Secretariat. Jorge Calero who wrote for example about “Determinants of risk of school failure in Spain in PISA 2009” with a special focus on young students with disabilities took the lead in this interesting as well as ambitious project. It is incluD-ed’s first non-representative pilot study.
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Objective of the study Given this background, the pilot study aims to explore the quality of inclusive processes in several European countries, taking into account the two types of elements mentioned. This exploration will have a descriptive nature (determining the position of the schools in the continuum mentioned) but also a normative one, in so far as it allows determining to what extent this position corresponds to situations defined as appropriate. The exploration is carried out using a methodology that will be applied as pilot in a number of schools in the countries participating in the incluD-ed network and that will be proposed as generalizable methodology for future continuity of this type of analysis. |
Expert meeting in Madrid
After defining the theoretical framework during the first months, the study project team met Mid-February with expert on inclusive education Gerard Echeita from Madrid University and two school representatives from primary and secondary education level in Madrid in order to discuss the proposed study and the as essential considered elements. During the meeting, experts and school representatives strongly stressed the importance of the social dimension of inclusive education. Everyone agreed that without competent, trained and engaged teachers and professionals high quality inclusive education can’t be guaranteed. The study project team decided to readjust the study objectives after the meeting according to the observations made. This meeting also gave birth to the title of the pilot study: “Quality Factors of Inclusive Education in Europe. An Exploration.”
Development of the questionnaire
In March, Jorge Calero worked on the questionnaire for schools to be completed by accountable and responsible headmasters and teachers of the inclusive schools selected as a sample. The questionnaire will be the main instrument of the study and take into account all aforementioned elements that inclusive schools have at their disposal to assure the right to inclusive education for students with disabilities.
Questions that are related to the social dimension of inclusion are inspired by the “Index for Inclusion: Developing Learning and Participation in Schools” (Booth, T. and Ainscow, M., 2011, 3rd edition), published by our incluD-ed associated member in UK, the Centre for Inclusive Education (CSIE).
Selection of the inclusive schools
In parallel to the design of the survey, the incluD-ed Network Secretariat together with its member organization and the help of experts of the incluD-ed virtual community preselected a (unrepresentative) sample of five primary and five secondary inclusive schools per participating country.
Current study status
Mid-April, we have sent out the questionnaire to the selected schools in Spain, France, Finland, Czech Republic, Austria, UK, Ireland and Iceland. The survey itself has four distinct parts and that covers data on different aspects and topics related to inclusive education in schools:
- > Part 1. School Data
- > Part 2. Policies and practices of the school (that affect the process of inclusive education)
- > Part 3. Resource Center (Human and material resources at the concrete disposal of students with disabilities)
- > Part 4. Vision on Disability and Inclusion
We will get back the completed questionnaires during May and can then start the analysis.
We expect to have the final results during summer. The publication of the pilot study is foreseen for autumn 2015.
