The Inclusive Learning Approach encourages schools to develop school inclusion teams and inclusive education co-ordinators.
The importance of collaboration
The development of a collaborative culture in schools is one of the most important ingredients for inclusive education. The more people can work together and support each other, the greater the chance they will identify and solve more inclusion challenges, using contextually relevant, innovative and low/no-cost solutions. The Inclusive Learning Approach (inclusive teaching component) therefore includes a focus on developing multi-stakeholder school inclusion teams (SITs) and establishing school-based inclusive education co-ordinators (IECos).
IECos co-ordinate inclusion-focused activities in schools and help to find ways to meet the support needs of learners and teachers. By having a SIT in place, teachers can share the load and also draw on other people’s expertise. Every school community has a lot of expertise and ideas that often remain hidden. The training encourages teachers to explore opportunities for revealing expertise and support. Teachers are encouraged to carry out action research with colleagues and stakeholders, such as learners, parents, community members and disabled people’s organisations, to investigate and address inclusion challenges.
Further reading
Briefing paper: ‘Innovation in Inclusive Education Teacher Training. Sharing our Experiences’ (2019.) This paper (available in PDF and Word) answers a lot of frequently asked questions about the training approach, including about SITs and IECos.
Learn about other parts of the process.
This project is a collaboration between NAD and EENET.
