Intercultural Mentoring tools to support migrant integration at school (INTO)

[ES] Within the scope of European policies and to combat educational disadvantages for migrant children, numerous actions have been taken to improve the position of migrant children in education. In secondary education the emphasis lies on diversification of the offered teaching methods and extra guidance of the pupils. Some schools in Europe have set up measures to increase the continuity of the educational support in terms of migrant pupil inclusion and orientation. Despite these measures, dropout rates are still high among migrant youth and compared to their native peers a disproportionately large number attend the lowest levels of secondary school after completing primary school. The disappointing results of regular guidance are partly the reason for the development of more innovative forms of guidance. The project aims to promote strategies and methods that help students with a migrant background at risk of ESL to maintain their motivation through the development, testing and validation of an Intercultural Mentoring Programme based on the empowered peer education methodology.The Intercultural mentor profile will be adapted to different European contexts, developed in collaboration with at least 100 school staff members (headmaster and secondary school teachers from 5 different European countries) and tested with at least 50 students with a migrant background trained as Intercultural Mentors. The impact of the project will be sustained thanks to its outcomes: (i) Didactic Kit: conceived as self-teaching materials will contain the training framework to directly implement the model of intervention in secondary schools system; (ii) Guideline Handbook: support the future implementation of training courses – by other education organizations and secondary school, (iii) Project website: it will include not only the results and materials of the project (handbooks, e-learning platform, reports, etc.) but will also include updated information on young migrants

Thinking outside the ‘deficit box’: promoting the equal valuing of all children through teacher professional development

This paper reports the findings of a study that focused on areas that should be considered in order that teacher professional development promotes the equal valuing of children in schools to promote inclusion. The paper draws on the findings of case studies in two schools in Cyprus, over a period of six months. The participants of the study were all the school staff in two schools (i.e. two head teachers, forty-five teachers, three special teachers, two speech therapists, two school escorts). Qualitative methods were used: i.e. participant observations, critical incidents, informal conversational interviews and semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that in order to encourage the equal valuing of all children, teachers’ professional development should address two areas: (1) the dominant value system, which represents a set of values about children; and (2) pedagogical strategies to address student diversity. It is argued that these areas are intertwined in ways that influence and interact with each other. Conceptualising teachers’ professional development through this spectrum of interactions has implications for understanding and developing teacher professional development opportunities as a means of promoting inclusive education in schools.</p

Promoting inclusive pedagogies in schools through student voice and dialogues

The use of student voice approaches in research and in schools has gained prominence following the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989). In this chapter, drawing from examples from two research studies in different countries, we illustrate how student voice approaches can facilitate the development of inclusive pedagogies, whilst at the same time analysing the challenges that such processes involve. A key focus of the chapter is an exploration of the role of dialogue between students and teachers, which, as we argue, is a key feature of inclusive pedagogy. The first example comes from the second author’s PhD research, exploring how the use of student voice within classrooms characterised by cultural diversity can be a cornerstone for developing more inclusive pedagogies. The second example draws from the first author’s work in five European countries that introduces an innovative approach, Inclusive Inquiry, that has at its centre the idea of using student voice approaches for the development of inclusive learning and teaching in schools. Through a critical examination of these two examples, both from primary schools (5–12 year olds) where fewer student voice studies exist compared to secondary schools, we argue that dialogue is a crucial pedagogical element in moving beyond surface-level engagement with student voice and in developing inclusive thinking and practices. This process is complex and needs to be understood as a pedagogical journey. We argue that when student voice is ‘heard’ and dialogue is sustained, teachers are able to reflect critically on taken-for-granted assumptions about teaching, learning and diversity, and develop specific pedagogical responses that facilitate efforts towards greater inclusion in the classroom.<br/