Inclusion is a fundamental value - Transnational cooperation to promote social inclusion
17-12-2021
News | School education
How can we create an inclusive educational environment for each student? How can European good practices of social inclusion be adapted in Hungary? What makes an adaptation process successful?
The STAIRS (Stakeholders Together Adapting Ideas to Readjust Local Systems to Promote Inclusive Education) project focuses on rethinking the systems to support inclusive education, identifying and adapting good practices in the field of social inclusion across Europe and making the adaptation process itself more tangible. The Tempus Public Foundation is the coordinator, and six other institutions (from 6 countries in total) are partners in the project, which started on 31 January 2019 and will end in summer 2022.
The project is in favour of strengthening the relationship between professionals working on social inclusion in Hungary and across Europe, facilitating a common understanding and formulation of challenges and creating a framework for structured cooperation so that, at the end of the policy learning process, a rethink of local, regional, and national systems supporting inclusive education can be launched.
What has happened so far?
In the first year of the project, in the so-called "good practice sharing countries (Ireland, Portugal) we collected well-tried good practices with the help of experts. special training and cooperation. These so-called "learning countries" (Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia) volunteered to explore the current recommendations in their national context and formulate their challenges and needs.
In the second year, expert groups from the learning countries, groups of experts involved in implementing social inclusion, took part in study tours focusing on one specific, unique challenge. These events were realised online because of the pandemic. Based on the good practices they learned about during these virtual study tours, the experts prepared an adaptation plan for their own countries.
What comes next?
In the third year, the partnership will jointly synthesise the results. A so-called European Adaptation Guideline will be created. This meta-level guide can also be used by other countries considering the adoption of good practices in the future. We are also working on a MOOC (open online course) to help national, regional and local stakeholders in the field of inclusive education by presenting best practices and making the adaptation process tangible. Actual change can only be achieved if the stakeholders' approach is supported by the project by developing a so-called change management toolkit.
What results do we expect from the project?
On the one hand, the involvement of experts should function as multipliers and brainstormers. We organise forums at the national level, where our experts can present and discuss with the participants what they learned during their visits to Ireland and Portugal and present their ideas for adaptation. On the other hand, to launch professional discussions and debates after presenting the adaptation proposals, which can facilitate the rethinking of the ways of cooperation, networking, knowledge-sharing, finding synergies between professionals at institutional, interinstitutional and higher education levels, and finally, that the inclusion approach is integrated into the mindset of those concerned.
The project results are already available on the STAIRS project website and the ESLplus knowledge portal. The latter supports in-depth learning in the field of early school leaving.
We are looking forward to meeting visitors again this year in our well-known Apple on the Tree workshop series. For current workshops, please consult the Tempus Public Foundation's website under the events menu and subscribe to the TKA newsletter and follow our Future of Learning Facebook page!
Adél Csernovitz | Tempus Public Foundation | Knowledge Management Group
Last modified: 21-02-2022