Teaching Diverse Learners in Europe: Inspiring Practices and Lessons Learned from Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden

in Schuelka, Matthew; Johnstone, Christopher; Thomas, Gary (Eds.) et al SAGE Handbook of Inclusion and Diversity in Education (2019)

Teaching in inclusive settings may be considered a new, challenging task; however, successfully supporting diverse pupils in their learning process has always been at the heart of outstanding pedagogy ... [more ▼]

Teaching in inclusive settings may be considered a new, challenging task; however, successfully supporting diverse pupils in their learning process has always been at the heart of outstanding pedagogy. Vast differences both in the extent and the quality of inclusive schooling exist between and within European countries. Promoting comparison and cooperation among countries with long-institutionalized inclusive schooling and countries with less inclusive structures, cultures, and practices proves crucial in education research and reform. Building upon a multi-year collaboration, we synthesize lessons learned about inclusive education reforms and “inspiring practices“ in inclusive education in partner schools in Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain, and Sweden. Contemporary practices take the diversity of groups of learners into account, building upon diversity as a resource; this served as the framework for our collaboration. The TdiverS consortium—as an EU-funded Comenius Network Project “Teaching Diverse Learners in (School-)Subjects“ (TdiverS)—was built on the following principles and goals: (1) diversity in theory and practice, resulting from collaborations of practitioners and scientists exchanging knowledge about teaching in inclusive settings; (2) strengthening awareness of the diversity of frameworks, conditions, and determining factors of teaching inclusively in varying cultural contexts; and (3) inclusive education research uniting multilevel, multicultural, and multidisciplinary perspectives. We highlight the values of inclusive education, map its contemporary European geography, summarize contemporary country-level education reforms and the local development of inclusive practices in six countries, and discuss lessons learned across Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western Europe. [less ▲]