The important goal of making Inclusive Education a reality

​This training course aims to reflect and examine different approaches, methods and best techniques to encourage inclusion in the classroom, since it is an important goal to reach in every type of school. The keywords of this training are empathy, membership, and cooperation, as characterising factors of inclusive education.

​​The new edition of the course “Special needs and inclusive education, the Italian experience of overcoming segregation” took place in Palermo from 26/11/2023 to 02/12/2023. The participants came from all across Europe, with Rita and Rūta from Gymnasium of President Antanas Smetona in Lithuania, Livia from Ammattiopisto Live in Finland, and participants coming from two different Spanish schools: Raquel, María Paz and Josefina from Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Valladolid; Elena and Aberto from Verge de Cortes.

We introduced the course talking about inclusive education from different perspectives, focusing on their various  benefits, but we also defined the terms of exclusion, segregation and integration to see the differences of meaning between them.  
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​Then participants focused their attention to the keyword already mentioned: the first keyword, “Empathy”, is the foundation for creating a “relationship” between the teacher, the students, and their families: it means taking the perspective of others without being judgmental, understanding another person’s feelings and sharing them, in order to encourage connections with people. Indeed, “To connect” is crucial in an educational context, especially when we talk about taking care of students with special needs.

The second keyword, “Membership”, means the “feeling of belonging to a group”, perceiving how your contribution could be meaningful to others. This sense of belongingness can be created by removing physical barriers and by promoting reciprocal comprehension, tolerance, and respect, which is very important to create a welcoming atmosphere that encourages and helps the learning process.  

​The last keyword of this course, “Cooperation”, refers in this case to the relationship with families, since they are part of the system where there are students with special needs or disabilities. Cooperating with families is important to create a supporting system for students. To put it another way, teachers need to be the guiding lights for both students and their parents, providing knowledge and thoughts for parents to best help their child’s learning process.

​We also analysed the characteristics of the “Italian Model”, which is one of the few examples of inclusive education, based on the idea of “including” every person in the same system and relying on the aid of special figures like Support Teachers and Educators, thus eliminating the presence of special schools. To better analyse this “Italian Model”, the participants also could visit, in Palermo, the secondary school “Liceo Classico Internazionale Statale Giovanni Meli”, which is in active in the field of inclusive education and works to put into practice all the methods and theories introduced during the course, helping students with different disabilities and special needs, always putting the students’ will first.

The networking activities among the participants were possibly the most constructive moments of the week, because they were an opportunity to share different perspectives, models and approaches, creating a reciprocal improvement. This training also lets every participant learn new devices and digital tools, creating the opportunity to examine original methods and techniques and encourage constant improvement. We want to thank all the participants, who made this course unique with their great dedication, it was a really significant but also funny experience!

Discover more about this course here.