Introduction and Overview – Visions for an inclusive society
The Introduction and Overview contains a presentation of the course and an activating activity through which the participants have the opportunity to discover the dimensions of inclusive governance according to Ebersold & Meijer (2016) and the EU Commission (2018) and to express their opinions in this regard. The course participants also get to know the project partners and can listen to their experiences and visions for creating inclusive societies
The unit Educational Policy and Governance allows course participants to deepen their knowledge of inclusive education and governance processes through key strategic documents by global stakeholders (such as the UN, OECD, UNESCO) and to reflect on regional implementation processes, as well as on their own experience and position. Furthermore, they will reflect on the connection between school quality and inclusive education.
The unit Interning – Practical Experience (A3) conveys insights into the governance of inclusive education in the four project regions through videos by the Tübingen State Education Authority (Germany), the Generalitat de Catalunya – Catalonia (Spain), the Educational Authority Styria (Austria), and different actors working in South Tyrol (Italy).
Unit A4: Professionalization in the Context of Theory and Practice
The unit Professionalization in the Context of Theory and Practice (A4) encourages the learners to reflect on participation and to formulate an own definition of inclusion. Starting from the reflection on the Actor & Network Maps referred to the project countries, they are called to position themselves and reflect on the respective fields of action, cooperation strategies and needs for improvement.
Educational activities on the Actor & Network Maps
Individual and regional perspective:
Observe all Actor and Network Maps in the English language version (the titles/ captions with the regions’ names have been removed). Can you guess which one refers to your region/ country?
In your region’s map, which actors seem to interact with several other actors? (Observe the arrows and arrowheads.)
Which actors seem to work on their own or to have few contacts with other actors? (If you have a printed copy of the map, you can make circles around or draw symbols on the map bubbles.)
Does anything surprise you about your country map?
Does anything bother or irritate you about your country map?
Do any suggestions for improvement come to your mind by looking at your country map?
To what extent do you agree with/ can you relate to the position attributed to your institution/ group in the map?
Draw your own position on the map or grab a game piece and place it where you locate yourself on the map.
Can you tell an anecdote about your interaction with another actor on the map?
If you could spend one week in another institution or in another actor’s shoes, which institution/ actor would you choose?
International comparison:
Are there actors who are present in all project countries?
Which actors are specific for each project country respectively?
Which societal and disciplinary areas seem to be most strongly involved in the governance of inclusive education in each country (politics, education, civil society, medicine…)?
On which governance level(s) (micro, meso, intermediary, macro) is inclusion primarily tackled in each project country? (Observe actor distribution.
Which project partner region/ country seems to have the most similar situation to yours regarding the governance of inclusive education?
Which project partner region/ country seems to have the most different situation than yours regarding the governance of inclusive education?