The third webinar exploring the foundational concepts of inclusive education has taken place as part of the ‘Fostering Inclusive Quality Education in Finland and Ireland’ Technical Support Instrument (TSI) project.
The webinar on 23 October focused on collaborative working and thinking in and across schools. It brought together participants from Ireland and Finland, including representatives from key national organisations and forums, academics and practitioners.
Kathleen Mortier, Emeritus Professor at San Francisco State University and a consultant for EASNIE, gave a keynote speech titled ‘Collaborative thinking that supports inclusive working’. She described how inclusive education thrives when schools, families and communities work together as equal partners and outlined some key collaboration strategies. These included collaborative support planning and using brokers to bridge gaps between schools and families.
Stakeholders from across Europe shared examples of collaborative practice in their countries. Jurgita Bagdonaite from the Lithuanian Ministry of Education emphasised the importance of collaboration across all levels – national, municipal, school and classroom – and described Lithuania’s multi-tiered support structure, involving teachers, school teams, regional centres and national agencies. Paulo Pedroso from the University Institute of Lisbon described Portugal’s 2018 inclusive education reform and the resulting system in which leadership and teamwork are central. He highlighted the importance of collective responsibility and on-going collaboration among teachers, specialists, families and other partners.
Finally, the TSI project team presented the key findings from the project. They found that both Finland and Ireland have established structures and processes to promote collaboration in inclusive education but face on-going challenges in ensuring effective co-operation among all stakeholders. Project recommendations for both countries include strengthening co-ordination, formalising partnerships and enhancing communication to ensure that inclusive education is collaborative and effective at all levels.
Following the presentation from the project team, Jukka Vetoniemi from the Finnish National Agency for Education and Johanna Fitzgerald from the Irish Education and Training Boards reflected on the project’s findings. They stressed the importance of co-operation between teachers and specialists and outlined ways in which schools can move from isolated collaboration to systemic, embedded practice.
Videos of the webinar presentations are available on the Multimedia page.
Read about the first two webinars in the series, ‘Inclusive and special education – same or different?’ and ‘Effective strategies for resource allocation and use at school and regional levels’.