Recently I was fortunate to attend the International Seminar on Inclusive Education in Tampere, Finland. This multicultural conference focused on inclusive education through the lens of four participating countries: Norway, Finland, Belgium, and the U.K. These educators have been pursuing innovative strategies to strengthen the competence of their specialized centers that support inclusive education. The project had been created due to the increasing need to share multidisciplinary information on best practices and how to support inclusive education for students with intensive needs. In addition, they created flexible models for the training of staff at expertise centers (segregated sites) and mainstreamed schools, yet also provide services for supporting the implementation of inclusive education.
Initially, when asked to attend this conference, I was intrigued as it was a conference on inclusion, but produced by organizations that oversee segregated sites. Fascinated by the irony of this I knew I had to go. Sure enough, like everything else on this Fulbright journey the learning occurred in several unexpected ways.
Major Takeaways:
- The organizations that I considered segregated sites are indeed segregated sites. However, these 4 countries perceive these sites as the experts in the field of all things special education. This means they are responsible for trainings and disseminating best practices to each of the schools throughout their country.
- The term Inclusion in Europe vs. the term Inclusion in the United States are absolutely defined differently (stay tuned as this will definitely be a future post)
- Prezi is an awesome presentation tool and I can’t wait to use it! https://prezi.com/
- Everyone throughout the world is trying their best to make inclusion happen for all students. However, the drastic differences in cultures, funding, resources, and knowledge has created variances among how and when it is utilized.
- Our Goleta USD teams need to be very proud at how well we are implementing evidence-based practices in the least restrictive environment.
- For me, the list of new knowledge and to do’s continues to grow