Promoting inclusion through extracurricular activities

The partnership implemented this project: a) to develop a methodological guideline for teachers on how to enhance educational inclusiveness by better involving parents, local authorities and the c...

The partnership implemented this project: a) to develop a methodological guideline for teachers on how to enhance educational inclusiveness by better involving parents, local authorities and the community in extracurricular, based on a research with valuable insights from all educational actors; b) to develop teachers’ skills into creating a more inclusive educational environment through extracurricular activities, based on sharing good practice examples from partner schools and on the methodological guideline developed through the project; c) to encourage pupils, parents and representatives of the local community to share their insights about enhancing the inclusiveness in schools and to participate to common activities for reaching this goal. All 3 objectives are directly linked to creating a more inclusive learning environment by providing tools for teachers and skills to use those tools, but are also linked to tackling learning disadvantage and early school leaving because having children feeling more included and valued in their schools also makes them learn better, despite their learning disadvantages, and makes them more motivated to stay in school.

To reach the projects objectives, the partnership did: a cross-county analysis of inclusiveness in schools, with valuable inputs from parents, pupils, teachers, representatives of community and NGOs; developed a methodological guideline for teachers on how to involve pupils, parents and community members in extracurricular activities to enhance school inclusiveness – guideline that included 21 examples of extracurricular activities that teachers could use to facilitate school inclusion; 6 international training events (3 for teachers and other specialists, 3 for pupils that will) that had a double role – to evaluate the intellectual outputs and provide feedback on how to make them better and to develop participants specific skills; 6 multiplier events that allowed the development of similar skills for teachers in nearby schools; 5 transnational project meetings (2 independent, 3 during the international training events) that allowed proper project management, but also the development of personal and institutional abilities to manage international project.

The most important project results are the two intellectual outputs: on the one hand, the research is useful for teachers and school management to better understand the actual situation regarding educational inclusion in their countries, but also to better understand how they could further analyse the inclusion in their schools by having input from parents, pupils and teachers; on the other hand, the methodological guideline with concrete examples of extracurricular activities allows teachers to actually do something in their school to promote inclusion, based on resources already validated. Important results are also linked to other activities within the project: about 30 staff members within the partnership involved in project implementation (development of resources, project meetings and management etc.) developing their project management skills, didactic, intercultural, linguistic skills; 184 participants (80 staff and 104 pupils) in training events, developing their specific skills; 221 participants in the multiplier events in the four countries represented by the partners and developing their specific skills and interest for international projects.