Project Daffodil and Inclues News

Editorial

Who is fit enough for school?

Last week I was contacted by an immigrant mother of an 8-year old boy, who was refused to continue in a regular elementary school because of a diagnosis of autism spectrum; after having received a series of tests he was sent to a special school, two hours drive away by a special bus. Despite that his school achievements were only a little delayed. Dynamic assessment revealed that he was in fact a highly gifted child. This school’s attitude reflects an underlying conception about assessment and performance, which is deleterious to inclusion. Fifteen years after the groundbreaking Salamanca Conference, supported by the UNESCO, there was a renewal conference this October, again in Salamanca. What we know from the Inclues-Network is that in recent years, especially following the ratification of the UN Convention of the Rights of People with Disability, many countries have reformed their laws to e ban discrimination on the basis of disability, also in education. This happened e.g. in France, Romania, Spain, UK, Portugal, Czech Republic. A very positive evolution. However, practice is lagging behind; teachers don’t feel competent; resources, training & coaching are lacking, not enough use is being made of the available resources in the community; and many times children are denied proper schooling because of low test scores. The latter was a reason to start the DAFFODIL project, aimed at raising awareness in Europe about the issues of pupils’ assessment in relation to inclusive education. The testing practice, now a solid part of our culture, grounded in our universities and field practice, was established in the early 20th century with a main purpose of discrimination, to determine “who is fit enough for… (school, war, work, etc.). It generated a whole science and practice. We are hardly aware that it was based on a discriminative, biologistic, deterministic model. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, this testing practice appears to be a serious obstacle towards inclusive education. The initiatives presented in this newsletter are attempts to raise awareness and formulate and train alternatives. Still meeting very little support, but they are seeds of what might become strong new directions

-Jo Lebeer, Daffodil Project coordinator, Antwerp, 18th November 2009

In the spotlight:

What Really Works in Inclusive Education by David Mitchell (Routledge, 2006) is a collection of papers and comments on current evidence on what kind of approaches and methods have been proven to be effective in realizing inclusive education.