Community for All- Inclusion Strategy 2015-2018

In the municipality of Aalborg’s central education office, we work hard every day to take care of all students. Our first priority is, together with parents, to give all children the opportunity to develop themselves both academically and socially. We wish to create a good environment where there is room for all children, so that their academic careers can aid them in becoming active participants in our world.

To succeed with this, we must have the backing and support of all adults in a child’s life. The parents’ view of inclusion is especially important, and can aid in created an understanding that, even though we are different, together we are valuable to society.

We know that it is a big assignment to create a good and safe framework for all children. Therefore, we in the municipality from 2011 until now, have sent 50 million kroner from the special department out to our 50 primary schools. The resources have followed their assignment, putting us in good condition to include as many children as possible in learning communities. These good conditions support our new inclusion strategy by ensuring that the effort is worked with systematically and goal oriented. At the same time, it ensures that the strategy will aid us in reaching the five goals presented in the central education office’s vision.

We want students who are in the know. This pushes us to be ambitious in our way of thinking. All students should be able to see that they are becoming better every day, and that an experimental and problem solving teaching method, among other things, aids in supporting their learning goals. Teaching methods that fluctuate in style allows teachers to meet students in different ways. This in turn grants the teacher the opportunity to endow their students with knowledge while simultaneously motivating to learn more.

Our goal is to create schools where as many children as possible are given the chance to be a part of a learning community. We however recognize that there will be instances where a child requires a special offer, where they can have the chance to be a part of a smaller and closer-knit learning community. No matter if in a special or normal school, it is important to us, that the professionals around them, who are competent and engaging, can ensure optimal conditions for learning and the well-being of a child surround a child.

About the Strategy

Purpose

The strategy’s overall purpose is to create a clear direction for inclusion in the municipality’s schools. We wish to ensure that there are good inclusive learning communities for all children. The strategy should aid in developing a common mindset by focusing on supporting students so that they can be a part of the community.

The strategy should simultaneously support a school’s management and the educational staff so that they can develop clear goals, efforts, and organizational structure for inclusion.

The strategy should aid in ensuring:

  • That all students have a safe and good academic career
  • That parent cooperation is strengthened so that parents can be included in an active role to create an inclusive environment and culture.
  • That the educational staff works together to create good inclusive learning communities
  • That a school’s inclusion councilor, and other councilors, and utilized to support these inclusive learning communities
  • That the school’s management team is responsible for the development of an organizational framework as well as one for the practical implementation of the effort.
  • That the special educational knowledge is utilized in the regular schools.

About the strategy

The inclusion strategy is to replace the municipality’s Master Plan for the Inclusion Effort 2011-2014. The plans central effort was, and will continue to be, for all the of the district’s schools to have inclusion councilors as well as six decentralized inclusion teams who are able to provide guidance and support.

The new strategy builds upon the master plan from 2011, and puts a special focus on inclusive learning communities for all. In the Municipality of Aalborg, we ambitiously work to implement the school system reform. Together with the Central Education Office’s vision, we ensure that learning and the well-being of students are in focus. This inclusion strategy should aid in integrating our goals in our daily work.

The Ministry of Education’s inclusion goal is that by 2020, 97% of students are enrolled in a normal school. In Aalborg, we are well on our way to meeting this goal. We currently have 96.4% of students enrolled in normal schools. For us, this isn’t just about statistics, it’s about creating a good environment for a student’s academic career.

The strategy builds upon data from a comprehensive external evaluation of how inclusion is valued. Here, the educational staff, school management, and a randomly selected parent school board member were invited to participate in two survey studies. A select few were also invited to participate in focus group interviews.

The strategy is also based on local focus group interviews at randomly selected schools in the municipality as well as on results from a research project on students’ experience with inclusion (AAU and The Municipality of Aalborg’s PPR). New research from both national and international studies was also included in the development of this strategy.

How the Strategy is set up

We have created four benchmarks to set the direction for the inclusion effort in the Municipality of Aalborg from 2015-2018.

The four benchmarks are:

  • Focus on students’ recourses
  • Parents should make a difference
  • Work together to finish tasks
  • Leadership

In January 2016, the strategy’s benchmarks will be supplemented by an implementation plan. This plan will show how the strategy can be supported and evaluated.

Inclusion- Our Definition

The Municipality of Aalborg’s inclusion effort has been an effort that is goal oriented. We can, however, become even better, and strengthen our inclusive approach in schools and free-time activity alike.

Inclusion as a concept can be difficult to define. We have a tendency to limit efforts to students with special needs who, intern, are called inclusion students. With this strategy, we will re-define inclusion so that it fits all students, because inclusion is about creating learning community for all.

Inclusion has succeed when a child:

  • Is a part of a learning community- is physically a part of the school
  • Participates in and feels a part of the community- has both friends and is a participates in teamwork
  • Develops a positive self image
  • Is in a positive learning progression- is developing learning

The inclusive learning community is visible when:

  • The school’s management prioritizes and supports the inclusion effort
  • The school has a common procedure for the inclusion effort and has a foundational approach for working to include all students
  • That each student’s diverse backgrounds are seen as a resource, so that each student can be come as successful as they can
  • The educational staff shows how students can support and help one another by being open to diversity
  • The educational staff works together in teams and shares knowledge, responsibility, and reflections
  • The school’s recourse person supports students and the educational staff
  • The inter-professional cooperation is formalized and yields guidance and sparring
  • Parents are a recourse that are a big part of the inclusive culture

In the company with communities

Children who are a part of and acknowledged in a community, develop self-worth and self-acceptance. I am something, I am worth something and I can do something because I add to the community. Children experience safeness and the feeling of belonging, which gives them what they need to learning and go to school.

Research shows that students generally learn more when they are a part of learning communities with a diverse group of students. Source: Rådet for BørnsLæring, 2014

For children to feel that they are a part of something important, they need educational professionals to create a meaningful framework. This framework should give a structure and safeness while simultaneously seeking new members.

It is important that the educational staff’s work be based on the needs of each individual student when creating a community. Inclusive learning communities can have many different uses. They are dependent on the different competencies and needs of the students. Some students, in specific situations, need for a smaller community while others function best in larger ones. In an inclusive learning community students are active participants that are seen and acknowledged.

Strong inclusive learning communities are a condition for the individual students learning. Both for the students who need help to be a part of a community, and for those who are already a part of one.

It is important to support such communities in all environments, in schools and at home, so that students feel acknowledged. Adults have the responsibility to ensure that children experience themselves as a valuable and indispensable part of the community. Children should be able to feel that the adults in their life are working towards the same goal and are good role models.

Benchmarks

  • Focus on students’ recourses
  • Parents should make a difference
  • Work together to finish tasks
  • Leadership

Focus on student’s resources

All students at our 56 school are valuable. This means that all students should experience that they are successful and can contribute to society. Students should develop a positive self-image so that they strengthen their self-worth. This should be ensured by with the help of professionals and parents by articulating, and bring the child’s strength and potential into the game.

All children do the best they can

The educational staff that is around a child is responsible for creating strong inclusive learning communities. For this to succeed, it is important to use a resource perspective as a starting point. We will therefore work with a mindset that uses the following as its’ starting point: All children do the best they can.

All children should do their best. This, to us, means that a child will always do what they can to measure up to the environments requirements and expectations. When requirements and expectations exceed what a child can manage, their reaction can be seen in different ways. Some will show their frustration by acting out in class. Others will turn their frustration inwards and will then become quite and entrapped. It is important that the educational staff around children know that expectations and requirements correspond to the child’s assumptions. To balance expectations for a child, the educational staff must not be bias, but rather curious as to why a child acts out. When a child can live up to the expectations set, their self-worth and self-image improve.

Student’s competencies and potential

When we are busy finding strengths and potential we should use what children are busy with as a starting point. By doing this, we bring each child’s competencies into the game. This is where the interesting and important learning happens. Children have diverse competencies and potential that should be challenged by learning in different ways. The goal is therefore for learning to happen in experimental and problem-solving environments so that more students are motivated to work towards a higher academic standing where they can see they are becoming better every day.

Openness is Important

When the educational staff has a common focus on a student’s strengths and potential, the collaboration starts from a recourse perspective. This however, doesn’t mean that a child’s challenges can’t be discussed, but rather than openness can aid us so that we don’t become solely focused on what isn’t working. When we look at a child’s strength and potential we become busy finding opportunities and answers.

Our goal is…

  • For children to experience that they are acknowledged and valued
  • For children to want to learn new things
  • For children to experience that they are a part of a community and that they are able to add to it

Parents should make a difference

We need all adults and professionals to take responsibility so that we can develop healthy and strong learning communities for all children. Parents articulation and positions to inclusion play an important role when we must work together to create common learning communities.

Diversity is a Strength

We as people are different, and as parents we prepare our children with the tools they need to acknowledge and handle diversity. Because of this, it is important that parents are included in developing what an inclusive approach is. Especially because, parents are the ones who instill an inclusive attitude in their children. Parents should know about, and understand why inclusive learning communities are a good thing, and how they can make a difference.

Openness and Dialogue

The school board should be active in creating the school’s inclusive culture. This means that the school board is central when the school is choosing what procedure to follow.

The school’s management and staff should be active participants in creating the school’s inclusive culture. In addition to this, they play an important role in creating a good dialogue with parents. Parents should be able to feel that there are clear expectations for them as parents so that they can grow and become active players in the development. It is important that parents feel that they are constantly informed and that their questions are answered so that they are included.

Parents should experience that the educational staff