PART 2: Activities to Promote Inclusivity

Studies in the literature provide several definitions of inclusion. Among them, it is worth mentioning the one at the basis of the Index for Inclusion (Booth and Ainscow 2002).

Inclusion can be addressed both to reduce barriers as well as to promote participation. It is, in fact, about a community that cares for its members, makes them feel welcome and is willing to adjust to fit their various needs (Marino-Francis and Worrall-Davies, 2010). And participation can be seen as an outcome (endpoint) of health and education services (Imms et al., 2016; Kennette, & Wilson, 2019).

Some of the actions identified and aimed to these twofold goals can be:

-Reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students, not only those with impairments or those who are categorized as ´having special educational needs´

-Learning from attempts to overcome barriers to the access and participation of students to make changes for the benefit of students more widely

-Valuing all students and staff equally

-Viewing the difference between students as resources to support learning, rather than problems to overcome

-Acknowledging the right of students to an education in their location

-Increasing the participation of students in, and reducing their exclusion from, the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools

-Improving schools for staff as well as for students

-Emphasizing the role of schools in building community and developing values, as well as increasing achievement.

-Fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and communities

-Recognizing that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society.

-Restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools so that they respond to the diversity of students.