Conference Agenda

Teachers are playing a vital role in the education process and their attitudes toward inclusion have a significant effect on the implementation and success of inclusion (Cook, 2011). Teachers possess positive attitudes toward inclusive education but they express their concerns related to inadequate education process and the means of educating students with special educational needs (Scruggs & Mastropieri, 1996). Other research (Saloviita, 2018) showed that teachers develop neutral to negative attitudes toward the inclusive education. Furthermore, men teaching in the mainstream school adopt positive attitudes in a lower level than women, teacher in a low self-efficacy level expressed positive attitudes in a low degree, but teachers who participated in special education seminars or completed a special education master, formed positive attitudes toward the inclusion policy (Vaz et al., 2015). Other study concluded that going aged teachers are characterized by positive attitudes toward the education for all (Monsen, Ewing & Kwoka, 2014). Teachers who work in primary education express positive attitudes toward the inclusion of students with low to mild degree of disability and express their beliefs to the effectiveness to the inclusion education practices (Ćwirynkało et al., 2017). Secondary education teachers support the inclusive education, especially for those who have taught a student with special needs and those who are qualified in special education (Bhatnagar & Das, 2014). This result was verified by another study (Yuen & Westwood, 2001) but teachers develop negative attitudes toward to the inclusion of students with behavioral problems, severe sensory impairments and mental retardation and their positive attitudes are referred to the inclusion of students with physical disabilities and mild speech and health problems.

Ensuring an effective inclusive education of all students, irrespective of their background, is the strive of any school. Each school needs to learn ongoingly to improve and innovate its practices in this regard, as the learning needs of their diverse students are to be addressed in the most appropriate manner. This is an ongoing, transversal concern, irrespective of the country or of the cultural context.

Inclusive education involves providing educational opportunities to all students, regardless of disability or group, but valuing all aspects of human diversity. To achieve this desiderata, attitudinal, structural, relational and environmental changes are needed (Cologon & Mevawalla, 2018). Although the general meaning of the concept refers to all categories of students, in this study we narrow the meaning to the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream education.

One of the most researched topics in the field of inclusive education is the theme of teachers' attitude (Mieghem, Verschueren, Petry & Struyf, 2018). This is due, on the one hand, to the fact that the teachers’ influence on students' progress is one of the largest (Hattie, 2014, Mincu, 2015) and on the other hand, due to the fact that teachers are key social actors able to support quality and equity (Mincu, 2022). The teacher's attitude has a direct impact on his behavior in the classroom and indirectly affects the educational experience the student with disabilities has in the school (Monsen, Ewing, & Kwoka, 2014). Thus, the research of teachers' attitude towards inclusive education is of crucial importance for finding the most suitable solutions to support teachers in planning and carrying out educational activities adapted to each student.

Attitude is defined as a "relatively durable and general evaluation of an object, person, group, problem or concept on a scale ranging from negative to positive" (Van den Bos, 2015, p.88). Attitude is defined by three components: cognitive, affective and behavioral (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). In this paper, we rely on the mentioned definitions.

Attitudes towards inclusive education have been investigated in countries across Europe and beyond. The most recent systematic literature review on this topic carried out on studies published between 2000 and 2020 highlights that the general attitude of teachers is a favorable one and that over the years it has progressed (Guillemot, Lacroix & Nocus, 2022).

The relationship between various factors and the way teachers see inclusive education has been investigated in different studies in Romania. They demonstrated that there is a link between teachers' stereotypes and inclusive education (Pachița & Gherguț, 2021), and between the perspectives that they have towards inclusive education (Marin, 2016). The aspects identified in these studies from Romania with regarding inclusive education, as well as recommendations on which they do, point to the need for more detailed research on this topic in Romania.

Our specific purpose is to establish whether Romanian teachers are in favor of inclusion or not. We also want to investigate how the attitude towards inclusive education differs according to factors such as professional training in the field of inclusive education, experience in education, the level of education at which he/she teaches, previous experience in including students with SEN.

Being socially included is a basic psychological need of human beings. However, a considerable amount of international school research has shown that not all students have positive relationships with their classmates. In the past, a large number of international studies focused on student characteristics (e.g. behavioral problems, learning problems, special educational needs, social insecurity) to explain decreased social integration (e.g. Weber et al., 2022; Krull et al., 2014; Lindsay, 2007; Chang, 2004). Furthermore, some recent field studies revealed that teacher feedback (TF) might be an important aspect that influences how students are accepted by their peers, too (Hendrickx et al., 2017; Wullschleger et al., 2020; Spilles et al., accepted). The theoretical background of these findings is the social referencing theory (Feinman, 1992) indicating that in classrooms teachers operate as an important social referent for students (Huber, 2019). Interventions that focus on the enhancement of social acceptance based on a modification of TF are not developed to date. The current study tries to close this research gap for the first time by evaluating a novel intervention that was especially developed to enhance the social acceptance of students rarely receiving positive TF: The Feedback-Memory approach.

Feedback-Memory was conceptualized as a multi-component intervention and was inspired by the implications of the Positive Behavior Support (Anderson & Kincaid, 2005) which focuses on the development of individuals’ positive behaviors and associated interventions like Tootling (Skinner et al., 1998). Every component aims to maximize the classmates’ perception of the class teacher giving positive TF towards students rarely receiving positive TF in class. The Feedback-Memory intervention contains 4 elements: 1) Identifying students rarely receiving positive TF (target students), 2) giving positive TF to students (especially to the target students) at the end of every lesson, 3) asking classmates to remember positive TF at the end of the school day, and 4) rewarding students for remembering the TF content by an interdependent group reward contingency system. A detailed description of the intervention is given in the method section below.

Since Feedback-Memory is an approach that was recently developed and therefore not evaluated to date the present study aims to deliver first empirical indications whether that intervention could be promising to enhance the social acceptance of students rarely receiving positive TF.

The research questions of the present study are therefore as follows:

1.Does playing Feedback-Memory increase the frequency of classmates-perceived positive TF towards students rarely receiving positive TF?

Based on the social referencing theory the classmates’ perception of TF influences the social acceptance of the feedback-receiving student (Huber, 2019). In a field study Spilles et al. (accepted) found out that the classmates’ perception of positive TF is slightly stronger correlated with social acceptance than negative TF. For this reason, Feedback-Memory was created to increase the classmates’ perception of positive TF. In order to enhance the social acceptance enhancing classmates’ perception of positive TF frequency towards target students TF should be found at least.

2. Does playing Feedback-Memory increase the social acceptance of students rarely receiving positive TF?

If an intervention effect regarding the frequency of perceived positive TF could be found it might be also assumed that social acceptance of students rarely receiving positive TF can be increased by Feedback-Memory following the previous field studies on the correlation of positive TF and social acceptance (e.g. Hendrickx et al., 2017; Wullschleger et al., 2020; Spilles et al., accepted).

Numerous studies show that students with special educational needs (SEN) in inclusive school classes are less socially included than their peers without SEN (Avramidis, 2013; Pijl et al., 2008). This is especially true for students with behavioral problems (Monchy et al., 2004). Based on social referencing theory, several studies in recent years already showed that the relationship quality between the teacher and a student is predictive for being accepted by peers (Farmer et al., 2011; Hendrickx et al., 2017). In this context, teachers’ relationships with individual students can be understood as a reference for the remaining students who to choose as future interaction partners. One way teachers provide information about their relationship with a specific student is through public feedback (Huber et al., 2018).

Conceptually, victimization and bullying can also be considered dimensions of social inclusion (Koster et al., 2009). Accordingly, studies found that students with behavioral problems are more likely to be victims of bullying by their peers (Jenkins et al., 2017). Furthermore, teachers and their relationships with students were shown to be linked to bullying and victimization in their classrooms (Dietrich & Cohen, 2021; Marengo et al., 2021), suggesting that social referencing processes might be present here as well.

Based on these considerations, the teacher would represent a social reference in the classroom that promotes or inhibits bullying and victimization processes through their public feedback behavior. Accordingly, students who receive a lot of positive and little negative feedback from teachers would be less likely to be bullied by peers than classmates who receive little positive and a lot of negative public feedback.

Drawing on the findings on the importance of teacher feedback for the social inclusion of students, the aim of this study was to examine to what extent these findings can also be applied to bullying processes. Accordingly, we first investigated if behavioral problems are related to victimization by bullying. In a second step, we tested if this relationship is mediated by teacher feedback.

Service-Learning (SL) is a methodological approach that combines learning and community service. As a result, it emerges as an educational experience through which students participate in a community service activity that is closely connected to the curriculum of a subject. SL favours the necessary interrelationship between university and society while creating a genuine link between theory and practice (Chiva-Bartoll et al., 2021). However, putting SL to work is not an easy task, since every student is different as well as their way of learning (Strom & Martin, 2017).

SL has been applied many times in the teacher education field, and previous literature highlights it numerous benefits among which we may mention: the promotion of attitudes, values and practices that support inclusive educational approaches in schools (Carrington et al., 2015; Maravé-Vivas et al., 2022), the development of a deeper understanding of inclusion, functional diversity and confidence in their ability to manage inclusive educational experiences (Ashton & Arlington, 2019; Chambers, 2017), or developing positive attitudes towards special educational needs (Barton-Arwood et al., 2016; Wilkinson et al. 2013), among others.

Nevertheless, for SL to work, proper guidance must be provided to ensure pre-service teachers’ learning and making the most of the experience. Pre-service teachers are diverse. Each of them possesses diverse strengths and weaknesses that will inevitably influence the way they approach, engage in and learn from the SL experience. As a result, teacher educators applying SL have the duty to attempt to ensure that all students make the most of their learning experience.

Reflection is considered as a fundamental pillar of SL, given that it enables students to establish connections between the service provided and the contents of the subject (Dubinsky, 2006; Hatcher et al., 2004). To include it effectively, the role of teacher educators is of utmost importance. Among other issues, providing effective feedback to the pre-service teachers may greatly favour the achievement of the pre-established objectives (Schartel, 2012; Winstone & Carless, 2019), given that effective feedback may work as a formative, regulatory, pedagogical and communicative tool. Consequently, providing effective feedback when applying SL may not only ensure proper reflection on the part of pre-service teachers, but also help ensure that teacher educators attend to the diversity of the students, since they will be constantly guided through the learning and experiential process.

Against this backdrop, this communication aims at presenting an educational innovation project that aspires to properly attend to diversity by providing effective feedback when applying SL in teacher education courses. Particularly, it displays how effective feedback will be included in a SL programme. To do so, the programme will incorporate the three types of feedback that, according to Cano et al. (2020), encompass effective feedback: feed-up (given at the beginning to let students know where they should direct their efforts), feedback (given along the process to enable learners to adjust the learning process) and feed-forward (given during and at the end of the process to promote to reflection on how to use learning in future tasks).

An inclusive school is a school where all students are welcome, parents are involved and the educational community is valued (Paseka & Schwab, 2019). It is upon the balance between students, parents, and the educational community that educational success is reached in a dynamic process where everyone is called to participate. However, parental involvement in building an inclusive school is a lacking area (Sharma et al., 2022).

Although an ecological perspective suggests the importance of multiple levels of intervention, most inclusive education research has emphasized individual-, peers- and school-focused strategies (Nilholm, 2021). This brings into debate how parents are called to participate in inclusive education, exercising their role as main shapers of their children’s beliefs and values (Allport, 1954; Bronfenbrenner, 1993). The literature shows that there is a relationship between the attitudes of children and their parents towards inclusion (Dowling & Osborne, 2003; Innes & Diamond, 1999). Children of parents with more positive attitudes also tend to show more acceptance towards their peers with disabilities (Wilhelmsen et al., 2019). Despite the influence that parents may have in the way their children interact and communicate within educational settings, existing research involving parents focuses predominantly on the impact of family-school collaboration (e.g., Paccaud et al., 2021) and the views of parents of children with disabilities or in risk of exclusion for other reasons (e.g., Paseka & Schwab, 2019). However, the parent’s role in educating their children on values and principles of tolerance and acceptance is critical in the effort towards achieving an inclusive school, where all children feel welcome and respected (Vlachou et al., 2016).

This demand gains more significant predominance with the movement of recent years of transferring the focus of inclusion from meeting the social/academic needs of pupils with disabilities towards a broader conceptualization based on creating a school community that can nurture the qualities of equity and care (Goransson & Nilholm, 2014). According to the Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2002) promoting an inclusive culture is a key dimension for implementing inclusive education, referring to “a secure, accepting, collaborating, stimulating community, in which everyone is valued as the foundation for the highest achievements of all. It develops shared inclusive values that are conveyed to all new staff, students, governors, and parents/carers” (p.8).

Interest in exploring the role and participation of parents in building an inclusive education is shared among several countries. The different policies systems implement for the improvement of education are often affected by cultural differences – what is expected from parents’ involvement? What do parents expect from schools? With this study, we intend to contribute to this debate with insights from the implementation of a parental school-based intervention – developed on the basis of the opinion of parents of children at risk for social exclusion and a systematic review of school-based interventions with parents.

Thus, this research project aims to evaluate the effects of a school-based implemented with parents focused on enhancing their involvement in promoting inclusive educational cultures.

In Greece, disabled pupils and their parents tend to experience many challenges because of discrimination and inequities. Educational research shows that from early years in kindergartens to secondary school settings disabled pupils struggle with many barriers in their daily educational environments and face: low to minimal opportunities to access and participate in quality educational processes in the mainstream education (1); restrictive beliefs from their teachers about inclusion (2, 3); high risks for low participation in their peer networks due to low social acceptance and a low number of friends (4); and higher victimization and feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction in comparison to their peers (5).

Evidence from studies with parents of disabled children examining their partnerships with teachers and educational staff, extend further the above-mentioned findings. A qualitative study conducted by Loukisas and Papoudi (2016) (6) provides illuminating outcomes from the personal blogs of five mothers of children in the autistic spectrum. The participants felt that as mothers together with their children they experience rejection and exclusion by the educational system. Also, educational professionals seem to be unwilling to promote a shift from a medical approach to education provision. As a result, the participating mothers narrated that they struggle to ensure their child’s right to education. This struggle is associated with frustration and feelings of stress, and anxiety from the mothers’ side. In their study Eleftheriadou and Vlachou (2019) (7), investigated the views of parents and teachers of primary school-aged pupils with learning difficulties about their roles as those identified by the theoretical framework of the Communities of Practice. The results are evident of parents’ low involvement in in-school practices, such as the design of their child’s individual goals, a pattern which raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of inclusive practices and parent-teacher collaboration. These concerns together with issues related to the provision of appropriate resources as well as administrative and organizational issues are themes of significant consideration for 83 parents about the inclusion of their children with intellectual disabilities as discussed in a recent study by Mavropalias, Alevriadou, and Rachanioti (2021) (8).

In light of this, the European Equality Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030 (European Commission, 2021) (9) and the National Plan for the Person with Disabilities (Ministry of State, 2020) (10), which are among the most recent policies that frame the policy commitments of Greece for combating discrimination and promoting the rights of disabled pupils in inclusive and equitable education, appear to be violated. It is also expected that the systemic weaknesses surfaced during the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Greek educational system has significantly widen inequities. Our hypothesis is based on evidence from other developed and developing countries which also strive to ensure quality inclusive education. Such evidence suggests that the established structures were shaken to the core, the psycho-social and educational needs of disabled students and their parents were unmet, whereas educators received minimum support to address effectively the pandemic related challenges in alignment with the principles of inclusion (11, 12). Against this background, the present study draws on survey data from 125 Greek parents exploring their beliefs about the extent to which teachers and support staff in special and regular schools responded and covered the educational and psychosocial needs of disabled children and, by extension, promoted inclusion and parental empowerment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An inclusive education system cannot be realised unless all stakeholders, including learners and families are actively involved in decision-making, and their diverse perspectives and experiences are recognised (UNESCO, 2021). The European Year of Youth in 2022 also encourages young people to engage in many different forms of civic and political participation (European Commission, 2021).

While the importance of learner and family voices is widely recognised, it remains unclear as to how to achieve meaningful participation in practice. In 2021-2022, a project was undertaken by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (EASNIE) with the aim to establish the theoretical background to this topic, as well as to identify effective ways in which the diverse voices of learners and their families can participate meaningfully in education decision-making processes. The project explored two main research questions:

1. What suggestions does key policy and research literature make for meaningfully engaging the voices of learners and families in decision-making?

2. In what ways can existing frameworks, approaches, and/or methodologies enable learners and families to participate meaningfully in decision-making?

To address these questions, a review of key international policy and academic literature first defined the key concepts and outlined the justification for and issues around learner and family voices. It then explored findings from research, indicating how existing theoretical models and frameworks have been used and adapted for meaningful learner and family involvement (Hart, 1992; Shier, 2001; Sinclair, 2004; Lundy, 2007; Pearce and Wood, 2019). The review also explored evidence from educational research, as well as European country examples of how participation has been achieved in practice.

The analysis indicated a number of conceptualisations of ‘voice/voices’ in the literature. The concept of voice is frequently used as a synonym for other concepts, such as autonomy, engagement, involvement, participation, or agency (Cook-Sather, 2018; 2020; Fielding, 2006; Lundy, 2005; Tiusanen, 2017). The review findings indicated that there is more research on children than on intergenerational participation. ‘Silos’ continue in research, with learners or adults who are vulnerable to exclusion being generally included in research based on a range of classifications and labels.

Several issues also emerged in relation to the processes of some empirical projects and European examples. A main concern is the lack of detailed attention to ethical issues and considerations around eliciting learners’ and families’ views and about the need for more democratic and socially just approaches to research. These are specifically in relation to the imbalance of power, where adults continue to drive the research agenda; knowledge is not shared and made accessible to all; those with the least social capital are the first to be marginalised. Although participatory approaches show positive results, the issue of impact and sustained change is not greatly evidenced.

These issues were reflected in a ‘Framework for Meaningful Participation in Inclusive Education’, developed to highlight the essential elements in future planning for participation activities with learners and families. Validation of the framework for participation was undertaken by three countries (Iceland, Malta, and Norway) that applied different approaches to projects of their own. Analysis of the different stages of their projects, together with their critical self-reflection, helped to finalise the framework and to develop practical, supporting material. This reflective tool proposes a more democratic approach to participation, aiming to enable stakeholders to address barriers and challenges of participation, adaptable to multiple contexts, levels of education, and ages of participants.

The study examines the role of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach in higher education as a strategy of trauma-sensitive pedagogy. Combining Universal Design for Learning and Salutogenesis concept, we implied to create a restorative tool to guide students toward a healthy way of learning. The key idea of Salutogenesis is the development of a Sense of Coherence (SoC) which serves as a tool for stress resilience with follow-up restoration (Antonovsky,1987). Applying the SoC concept, educators are able to identify factors and strategies to maintain psychological health. With this in mind, we approached the idea of creating a safe, engaging, barrier- and stress-free learning environment through the perspective of Universal Design for Learning and SoC combination (Kumar & Wideman, 2014) .

In light of recent events, the issue of individual vitality and diversity as abilities that provide resources to resist crisis situations and remain productive has become crucial for today’s Ukrainian educators and learners. However, global recent events (Covid-19, natural disasters, violence in educational establishments ) have led to stressful experiences for learners all over the world (Mays, 2021). Teaching students who underwent stressful situations, we noticed dramatic changes in students’ ability to learn, including difficulties with focusing, being exposed to uncontrolled emotions, processing and recalling information, reacting unpredictably to comments, the fear of future planning, showing low self-esteem, having an increased level of anxiety concerning public speaking, being assigned and assessed. All these trauma consequences cause barriers to learning that can be eliminated when applying the strategies and philosophy of UDL and SoC which create a barrier-free learning environment and promote well-being.

Today, the salutogenic approach represents an alternative system of understanding the relationships between a personality and the environment (Eriksson& Lindström, 2006). Salutogenesis has entered a lot of different scientific branches like medical humanities, pedagogy, didactics, and special needs education. From Antonovsky’s theory of salutogenesis, it follows that efforts should be made not to eliminate pathogens but to maintain healing factors such as "general resources of resistance" and "SoC". The first concept includes biological, material, and psychological factors that allow an individual to experience life as permanent, understandable, and systematized. Resistance resources allow accumulating life experiences, which activate a sense of personal coherence – a way of perceiving life and the ability to successfully manage many stressful situations. According to scientific research findings (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004; Perry,2006), stress itself is not always pathogenic, moreover, under certain conditions can be a salutogenic factor.

Our objective is two-fold. We present the theoretical background for the explanation of UDL philosophy and connect it with Antonovsky’s theory (1987) of Salutogenesis, predominantly the Sense of Coherence (SoC) that is the internal personal basis for follow-up restoration. From this perspective, we applied Antonovsky’s theory as an approach that demonstrates the potentially positive impact of stress on human vitality and the ability to study, self-develop, and find new meanings. We found out how UDL strategies could be enhanced by Salutogenesis ideas and how these approaches could be combined practically. The second part is an empirical study focused on measuring the impact of suggested strategies on teaching traumatized students and creating a safe, barrier-free, and engaging learning environment. Our study is focused on two key questions:

1. What is the Sense of Coherence (SoC) level of students?
2. What are the most efficient SoC- enhanced UDL strategies?

Our research hypothesizes that the UDL can serve as a salutogenic means to establish a healthy way of learning and problem-solving.

Development and implementation of a Didactic Guide for the improvement of training in inclusion in the University

This educational innovation project proposes the elaboration, application and evaluation of a Didactic Guide to facilitate the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the different subjects of the Degree in Primary Education at the University of Burgos (Spain). It is divided into three main phases from January 2023 to December 2024: 1st) Review of teaching materials and design of educational material, with special attention to ICT; 2nd) Training of teachers of the Degree; and 3rd) Application in different subjects of the Degree and evaluation of the experience by the teaching team and the students involved. It is thus expected to facilitate the improvement of the training on inclusive education of the teaching staff and students of the Degree through the involvement of both groups in an innovative process.

Objectives:

• To expand the training in inclusive education of teachers and students with the Degree in Primary Education.

• Facilitate the application of the principles for education for all people at the University through the elaboration and implementation in the classrooms of a Didactic Guide in UDL that offers methodological strategies and tools, especially ICT (Information and Communication Technology), for different subjects of the Degree.

• To evaluate the results of the experience considering the perspective of teachers and students.

Theoretical framework

There is great interest in offering inclusive education in the university system from different areas such as the legislative, curricular (Edyburn, 2010; Díez Villoria & Sánchez Fuentes, 2015) or architectural (Meyer, Rose & Gordon, 2014; Lopez-Gavira et al., 2016). There is a need to make learning and teaching more accessible in the university setting. Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, is a framework to guide tertiary educators in instructional design by removing barriers to learning (Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network [UDL-IRN], 2011).

Understanding the difficulties and needs faced by the diversity of students at different educational stages is to recognize the existing inequality in access to learning. One way to improve is to offer inclusive teaching as a transversal element in the initial training of future Primary Education teachers, which should contemplate diversity as an enriching factor in society (Lozano Mellado et al., 2017, p.104). This is a response to the demands coming from different national and international educational and social institutions that point out the scarce training of future teachers (Boothe et al., 2018).

The scope of the project can be very significant for being developed in a Degree, the Primary Education Teacher, with 30 subjects (plus 6 optional subjects of mention, 5 in the case of Physical Education), 95 teachers and 592 students in the current course. In addition, it will contribute to the improvement of a Degree that is already obtaining a very good position in international rankings such as the World University Ranking, prepared by Times Higher Education.

When teacher education programs emphasize differences among different types of students, they evidence the need for training to prepare teachers for diversity (Florian & Camedda, 2020, p.5). This project has a benefit to the entire undergraduate student body (590 students, in the optimistic forecast) and, specifically, to those taking the 15 subjects taught by the professors.

The pedagogical benefit of using the Guide can be transferred to other Degrees. Students are also offered a variety of resources and strategies in the subjects they are studying. The training of university professors and their development of competencies are also expected results and benefits like other studies from Schelly, Davies, & Spooner (2011) or Unluol Unal, Karal & Tan (2020).

The full participation of all pupils in the overall educational process is defined by the concept of inclusive education, which is gradually evolving in education policy and practice (Magnússon, Göransson, & Lindqvist, 2019). It includes the full participation of all pupils in a shared learning experience, and educational practices that address barriers to learning (Florian, 2019). Inclusive education applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which includes promoting students' involvement in learning processes, guaranteeing a deep understanding of the analysed phenomena, initiating self-directed learning, and using e-tools to create a barrier-free environment, is a prerequisite for the personal success of each pupil (Van Boxtel, & Sugita, 2019; Sanger, 2020; Swanson, Ficarra & Chapin, 2020).

Research problem. Most research is aimed at revealing general trends in education applying UDL; however, there is a lack of focus on revealing the individual experiences of teachers. This research aims at answering the question of what teachers’ individual teaching profiles of UDL-based education are in the environment of contact and remote education. The following elements constitute the centre of attention: traditional teaching methods used by the teachers; the ways of modelling education for engagement and participation by eliminating barriers; the ways of encouraging self-regulated and co-operative learning; the ways of using digital technologies for engagement and scaffolding.

Teacher education has an essential role in shaping incoming teachers' positive attitudes towards inclusive education and the skills and knowledge to support the learning of different learners. Research has shown that teacher attitudes and self-efficacy are important determinants of success in inclusive classrooms because they influence teacher behavior, which in turn affects classroom climate and students´ chances of success (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002; Jordan et al., 2009; Silverman, 2007). Teachers' positive attitudes also predict success of inclusive education reforms (Forlin, 2010). Thus teachers' interpretations and understanding of their roles play a critical role in implementing inclusive practices. Research has indicated that examining teacher attitudes are crucial for developing more effective teacher training programmes (Engelbrecht & Savolainen, 2018); research is adamantly looking into ways that teacher training can assist in preparing teachers for a highly diverse yet inclusive educational reality (e.g. Peebles & Mendaglio, 2014; Sharma & Nuttal, 2016).

The preservice teacher education course "Implementation of Inclusive Education" was redesigned in Tallinn University with more emphasis on teacher professionalism and reflection, as well as one’s ability to carry out small-scale action research, collaborate and make research-informed decisions. The main aim of the course is to support positive and self-efficient attitudes of future teachers for implementing inclusive education, as those attitudes encourage them to find strategies for providing quality educational opportunities for each learner in their classroom. After the course redesign, teacher students’ attitudes at the beginning and after the course were mapped, and positive changes in their willingness to include, as well as self-efficacy were reported (Poom-Valickis & Ulla, 2019; Poom-Valickis & Ulla, forthcoming). The aim of the current study is to understand which course aspects contributed most to the change in teacher students’ attitudes and self-efficacy in inclusive practice.

The following research questions were posed:

1. Which course aspects are perceived by teacher students as most relevant for impacting their knowledge, skills, and attitudes in inclusive education at the end of the course “Implementation of inclusive education at school”;

2. Which course aspects most predict positive changes in students' attitudes towards inclusion and their self-efficacy for inclusive practice, at the end of the course “Implementation of inclusive education at school”.

The results of the study may help evaluate which course aspects could be the most relevant predictors of change in attitudes and self-efficacy in inclusive education; and contribute to the evaluation and development of pre- and inservice teacher training programs related to inclusive education.

The 2030 Agenda (UNESCO, 2015) calls for promoting learning opportunities for all through inclusive and equitable quality education. At European level, European Commissions (2018) stress the imperative of inclusive education and training at all levels. However, promoting access, participation and achievement for all learners (Both and Ainscow, 2002) is not an easy task. Policy and practices are failing in achieving inclusive education in the interest of social justice in schools (De Beco, 2018). Initial Teacher Education (ITE) plays an important role in this respect. European studies show that ITE does not always prepare preservice teachers for the education challenge (Acquah et al., 2020; Vigo-Arrazola et al., 2019). The literature shows similar results in the Spanish context (Sánchez-Serrano et al., 2021). Among the reasons, are the different conceptualisation of inclusive education (Artiles, 2020) or the dominant special education perspective (Rice, 2020). Research on inclusive education in ITE has focused on previous contact experiences with diversity (Sharma et al., 2008), linking theory and practice (Zeichner, 2010) or the importance of considering spaces for reflection and discussion and individual and collective research (Vigo-Arrazola et al., 2019). However, little research has focused on what arrangements exist in particular sites of practices that are enabling and constraining preservice teachers´ inclusive practices.

This paper takes as a reference the lenses of the Theory of Practice Architectures (Kemmis and Grootenboer, 2008) and its conceptualization of practice as a set of “sayings” (understanding), “doings” (actions), and “relatings” (ways in which people relate to). I argue to consider inclusive practice as a practice with its particular “sayings”, “doings” and “relating”. Practices are shaped by individual dispositions, experience or intentions, but are also shaped intersubjectively by arrangements that exist in sites of practice (Mahoon et al., 2016). The arrangements (also called practice architectures) exist simultaneously in a place of practice and enabled and constrained a particular practice (Mahoon et al., 2016). The arrangements are cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements (Mahoon et al., 2016). Furthermore, practice can be situated in multiple sites of practices (Schatzki, 2002). In this paper, two sites of practices that shape preservice teachers´ practices in ITE are considered: university and school placements.

Using this theoretical framework, the aim is to identify what arrangements (practice architectures) exist in sites of practice that shape preservice teachers´ practice, enabling and constraining inclusive practices.

The Inclusive education recently introduced in Kazakhstani education system has a goal to be pioneered by 30 percent of mainstream schools by 2022. Due to this reason many teachers, practitioners and researchers are in the dilemma over how to teach students with additional needs such as twice-exceptional students. The purpose of this qualitative research is to investigate, from the perspectives of various subject teachers, the educational experience of twice-exceptional students with cerebral palsy who are currently studying in a school for gifted and talented.

This study was based on a case study method of qualitative research. The main participants of the study were twelve teachers with at least five years teaching in a school for gifted and talented who participated in a semi-structured interview, focus group discussion and were observed during their teaching to triangulate the research results. Reviewing relevant empirical research literature and conducting qualitative research, the teachers’ awareness, beliefs and experience with gifted additional needs students such as twice–exceptional students and methods how twice-exceptional students are identified in the classroom were analysed. Furthermore, the research explores the effects of labeling and non-labeling twice-exceptional students on the academic performance followed by examining the inclusive education techniques to accommodate twice-exceptional students. The results of the study revealed that twice exceptionality is a challenge in participating school. The case study research concluded that educational experience of twice exceptional children is based on crucial factors such as teachers using a differentiated teaching approach as an inclusive strategy to accommodate the unique needs of gifted students with cerebral palsy.

Although, UNESCO (2019) calls for schools to become “welcoming spaces … where respect and appreciation for the diversity of all students prevail” (pp. 11, 15), students are challenged in their presence, participation and achievement in education. The World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE) drawing on data collected from over 160 countries reported that 80% of students living in rural areas in low-income countries transition to secondary school settings as opposed to 91% of students living in urban areas (UNESCO, 2022). Moreover, PISA 2018 reported on student perceptions of discrimination by their teachers on the grounds of gender, ethnicity and advantaged or disadvantaged backgrounds (OECD, 2020). The report indicated lack of guidance and teachers being challenged with creating inclusive environments for all students (OECD, 2020). Prior to that, PISA results showed that 23% of students in Australia felt like outsiders reporting a low sense of belonging and scoring lower in science than students who did not experience like they did not belong in their school, indicating that their sense of belonging impacted on their achievement (OECD, 2017). Additionally, despite “the importance of the representation and participation of the youth of today in decisions concerning their education and their future (UNESCO, 2019, p. 17), student voice in research related to their education is missing (Gillett-Swan & Osborne Burton, 2022). The abovementioned data demonstrates inclusive education being “approved and valued”, but not fully accepted or implemented, “just not right now, or not right here” (Price, 2017, p. 157). However, emerging research has evidenced the transformative role of architecture in promoting students’ inclusive education.

Architecture defined as space students “move through, exist in and use” (Meier, 1984, p. 1) has been identified for its role in enabling student movement and transitioning to different activities (Love, 2019; McAllister & Maguire, 2012), as well as student learning and achievement (Everatt et al., 2019; Hughes & Morrison, 2020). However, architecture has also been evidenced for challenging students’ inclusive education with inaccessible school spaces being reported (i.e., Ackah-Jnr & Danso, 2019). Nevertheless, students’ experiences are rarely reported, rather data exploring the intersectionality between inclusive education and architecture has been collected from educators alone (i.e., Love, 2019) and/or parent/carers (i.e., Wijesekera et al., 2019). Informing the intersectionality of architecture with inclusive education, this case study in a primary school setting in metropolitan South Australia reports on student and educator experiences of teaching and learning within open plan spaces, planned to accommodate two teachers and 40 students approximately.

The overarching research question and subsidiary questions that underpinned the study were as follows:

• What role does architecture, inclusive of physical, social and semantic space play in students’ inclusive education?

1. What are student, parent/carer and educator (school community members) understandings and experiences of inclusive education?
2. What do students identify to be the key elements in the school’s architecture that promote their inclusive education?

Theoretical framework

Practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014) explores “how some particular sets of sayings (language) come to hang together with a particular set of doings (in activity, or work) and a particular set of relatings (e.g., particular kinds of power relationships or relationships of inclusion or exclusion)” (Mahon et al., 2017, p. 8). By employing a practice architectures theoretical lens, the current study explored three dimensions of space: physical, semantic and social space enabling or challenging the enactment of inclusive education in a primary school context. Although the practice architectures theoretical lens enabled the exploration of the internal complexity of the school, this presentation will report on some of the material-economic arrangements in the physical space of the school, the open plan spaces.

One of the current challenges still consists of providing organisational frameworks that enable and structure inclusive education in schools. This need is also evident in Early Childhood Education. Unfortunately, it is increasingly common to find schools that do not respect children's learning rhythms, needs, transition periods or their own voices (Pontiveros, 2011). The prevailing educational approach is more focused on the curricular requirements of later educational stages, often adopted by corporatist interests or the logic of the market per se. Many children do not find a response to their interests, rights and needs in today's pre-schools. Instead of stimulating their capacities, exclusion processes are favoured from the first contact with formal education.

Previous works have analysed the importance of school places and spaces as physical, but also relational and contextual elements in the organisation of school work (Vanacore, 2020) and the promotion of inclusive education (Grande and González-Noriega, 2015). The ECER 2018 constituted a specific network in which the forms of inclusion and exclusion fostered by school spaces were analysed (Marques-Da Silva, 2018). It was thus emphasised that the different dimensions of the school's spaces not only help to transmit its cultural identity but also its pedagogical identity (Bondioli, 2016). The space is, in fact, constituted as a facilitator of the teaching-learning, inclusion and participation processes of the educational community (Striano, 2020). In Spain, teachers note that school spaces are the obstacles that most hinder their inclusive practices (Arnáiz, Escarbajal and Caballero, 2017). Despite this, in our country it continues to be one of the least researched elements, beyond ensuring the accessibility of certain groups and making adaptations to specific areas of the school (Striano, 2020).

This paper attempts to explore in depth how the organisation of school spaces favours educational inclusion from early childhood, understood as a process that goes beyond the deficit perspective. In this sense, a model of school spatial organisation is advocated, aimed at enhancing children’s possibilities and capacities, taking into account the characteristics and needs of all of them. At the same time, we are committed to making children's voices visible and to articulating inclusive educational and educational research processes that encourage children's participation. As stated by Booth, Ainscow and Kingston (2007, p.3): “Inclusion in Early Childhood Education is as much about the participation of professionals as it is about children’s involvement. Taking part means playing, learning and working in collaboration with others. It involves making choices and expressing an opinion about what we are doing. Ultimately, it has to do with being recognised, accepted and valued by oneself.” Play, learning and participation therefore stand out as key elements of children's educational inclusion. And, along with education and free expression, they are fundamental children's rights. (Cuevas-Parras, 2022) that must continue to be defended (Aguilar, Recio and Macías, 2019). As Tonucci (2012) stresses, it is urgent to ensure that children can participate and propose solutions to issues that affect them. Among them, the design and configuration of the school spaces they inhabit and which enable them, to a greater or lesser extent, to play, relate and learn.

For all these reasons, this contribution aims to analyse how school spaces favour inclusion in Early Childhood Education, without losing sight of how children experience these spaces and what contributions and suggestions they promote for their design and transformation.

Preliminary research question:

How do young women who has experienced school leaving manage their identity/identities and practice meaning making in narratives forming linkages between home and education?

The aim of this paper is to explore the intersection of home, school/education, identity- and meaning making. To do so I have seen to narrative methodology and the concept og linkage. Linkage is an analytic tool within the narrative tradition to understand meaning making (Gubrium & Holstein, 2009, p. 55-56). The paper is inspired by one of the informants in our qualitative, longitudinal study. In one of our conversations, she is sharing a story where both her home and her school serve as narrative environments (Gubrium & Holstein, 2009), and by linking experiences from the two arenas she creates a context for meaning making. Intrigued by this narrative I wondered if I would find other narratives in other interviews, linking home and school as a context for making and understanding meaning.

Gubrium & Holstein points to workplaces and occupations as significant narrative environments (2009, p.123-124, 161) as this is an arena where people tend to spend many hours of the day and it is often seen as an identity marker. But just as important, the skills, thoughts, praxis and traditions at a workplace or incorporated in an occupation encloses the worker and contributes to the frame of how the individual form narratives. For young people, education holds the same role as the workplace in several aspects, but education also has its specific traits. Students in upper secondary school have less options within the school system compared to when they start university or work. In their everyday life and narratives in a school setting, young people are bound to roles as students, teachers and peers. For young people not attending school, the school environment expected to be a narrative environment in their everyday stories, will be lacking. The lack of narrative environment might also shape and influence identity and how the storyteller forms narratives.

In a contemporary Norwegian context, the consequences of not completing upper secondary education can make it harder to enter the job market. But even more so, according to Staer (2015), the core challenge for a student experiencing school leaving in a “knowledge and competence society” is more importantly tied to the symbolic value of the individual's ability to master the opportunities surrounded him/her. Thus, the responsibility is placed on the individuals ability and capacity to master challenges in "an ocean of opportunities", in a country where social equality with equal opportunities and rights are prominent (Frønes, 2017, p. 22; Staer, 2015).

A home can also serve as a significant narrative environment and informs the storyteller. Gullestad argues that home plays a notable part in Norwegian culture, a culture she calls particularly home oriented (1989). Gullestad argues that the home serves as a creative expression for values that are important to us (1989, p. 57). Thus, the home both serve as a place to spend time, preform everyday tasks and celebrate special occasions as well as a holding a unique position for symbolic value.

In addition to education and home, identity and meaning making makes up the third part of the intersection I want to explore. In a modern, Norwegian society, choice and reflexivity can be said to largely have replaced tradition and the importance of societal institutions and social background as decisive for the individual's role and identity (Giddens, 1991, p. 81). This change requires the individual to constantly perform identity-management. In line with Gullestad (2001, p. 33) I see identity-management as something we exercise in interaction with others.

Women’s empowerment may be gaining ground on a global stage (UN Sustainable Development Goal 5). However, notions of empowerment abound and are often poorly defined, misused, or even abused. Woman’s empowerment is often linked to education, however, much less is known about ‘how’ education empowers women (Mosedale, 2005) and indeed may disempower. Even with this knowledge, there is no singular woman’s experience or way to empower. The voices of neurodivergent woman have been marginalised in empowerment discourses, in a meaningful sense, as our literature review suggests the term is often misused when applied to woman with ADHD. This research also builds on an emergent body of evidence suggests that the experiences of woman and girls with ADHD is different to what is commonly associated with ADHD; because much of what is known is based on research with males. For example, when compared with males, females with ADHD appear to present differently, they are more likely to ‘suffer in silence’ and receive a diagnosis at a later age (Murry et al., 2019; Waite, 2007), they also present with higher rates of inattention, internalizing problems, or cooccurring difficulties (e.g., anxiety disorders eating disorders, and depression: Levy, Hay, Bennett, & McStephen, 2005; Quinn, 2008), and social impairments (Biederman et al., 2002; Gershon, 2002). They are less likely to present with externalising issues, conduct problems, or behaviour disorders (Quinn, 2005). There is recognition for the impact of culture (which has an impact on woman in terms of gender specifics roles and responsibilities) on ADHD characteristics, functional difficulties, self-identity, and well-being (Singh, 2011, 2014; Waite, 2010). This paper also builds on an emergent awareness that inclusive research should move away from trying to 'fix' deficits, and construct environments which are inclusive and empowering, and that such research should be done 'with' those directly affected, in this case, woman with ADHD.

This study falls within the theoretical framework of Inclusive Education and Critical Disability Studies. Inclusive education supports that all children, especially children that have traditionally been excluded because of their identities, can be educated together and on equal terms with their peers (Ainscow, Booth, & Dyson, 2006). However, research in the field has mostly focused on specific groups of children (e.g. children with disabilities, children with immigrant background, refugee children) analyzing their experiences as the outcome of one identity and not as the outcome of intersection of identities. This often leads to “a monolithic view of children” (Waitoller & Kozleski, 2013, p.4) ignoring characteristics, experiences and important aspects that may affect the trajectory of their life. In this framework, examining the potential of the education system to consider the intersection of children’s identities becomes important (Besic, 2020).

Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989, 1991) proposed the term ‘intersectionality’ as the metaphor for understanding the way a person's characteristics and identities intersect and the ways that multiple forms of inequality sometimes compound and create obstacles. Originally, she used the term as a tool for studying the ways in which gender intersects with other identities and how these intersections constitute unique experiences for each individual (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller & Thomas, 1995). At the same time, disability feminists introduced the terms 'double oppression' and ‘multiple oppression’, arguing that all aspects of personal experience must be recognized and explored as a way to include the intersection of disability with other identities and experiences, such as gender (Vernon, 1996, 1998).

In this context, the concept of intersectionality was raised in Critical Disability Studies (CDS), encouraging us to focus on the life experiences of people with multiple identities, including disability. CDS recognizes that disability is constructed and understood culturally, politically, theoretically and socially (Goodley, 2017). Research over the past years has mostly examined the identity of disability in relation to gender, race, sexual orientation, immigrant biography, and refugee background. What emerged through analysis is that people with disability and other identities that are considered as minorities may: (a) experience discrimination and marginalization from both mainstream communities and within the minority communities to which they belong, (b) develop practices of survival and resistance to the oppression they obtain and use their different identities as supportive of each other, (c) be indirectly forced to hide or reject some of the identities which in some cases results in abandoning their culture, language and preferences and (d) experience the intersection of their identities in a different way, depending on their social status, family and culture (Boydell, Bennett, Dew, Lappin, Lenette, Ussher, Vaughan & Wells, 2020; Fylling & Melbo, 2019; Miles, 2019).

In brief, intersectionality is not just a theoretical argument, but an approach that means more than being oppressed due to the intersection of your race and gender (Esposito & Evans-Winters, 2022). Intersectionality encourages us to focus on the experiences of people with disability and highlights the importance of implementing a social justice approach in education policy and practice. Specifically, intersectional understandings of disability can initiate new forms of pedagogical thinking, highlighting on students' intersecting identities and how these intersections contribute to students' experiences of discrimination and oppression on the principles of inclusive education (Liasidou, 2013).

This research aims to examine how the intersectional identities of a woman with disability can be used in a critical conversation about intersectionality and inclusive education. More specifically, it aims to explore the following research question: How do the intersectional identities of a woman influence her life trajectory by her experiences in the education system?

This paper explores new boundaries relating to comparisons of German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and South African publications in a systematic literature review of research publications related to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (World Health Organisation, 2001, ICF) and education. New ground-breaking methodological approaches are required when comparing multi-language data from an international systematic review, similarly there are practical issues when working globally relating to cross-cultural understandings, work practices and time-zones.

This study is the outcome of a systematic literature review on the use of the ICF and its Children and Youth version (WHO, 2007, the ICF-CY) in the field of education and specifically education for children with disabilities, special educational needs and those requiring additional support in school. In 2010 Moretti, Alves, and Maxwell (Maxwell et al, 2012; Moretti et al., 2012) carried out a similar review and set the scene for how the ICF is used in the education field. In the intervening decade much has developed with the ICF and it is time for another measure of the situation. Throughout this paper we will refer the “ICF” as both the ICF (2001) and the ICF-CY (2007), unless otherwise specifically indicated.

The ICF is a bio-psycho-social classification framework developed by the World Health Organization based on a non-categorical approach to human functioning contextualizing the functioning of an individual in their current environment without the use of ‘traditional’ categories or diagnoses. The framework incorporates 'all components of health described at body, individual and societal levels’ (WHO, 2007). The ICF is intended for all people but is particularly applicable and appropriate for persons with disability.

The term education in this article means the “development of human potential...personality, talents and creativity as well as...mental and physical abilities” (United Nations, 2006) made in a formal context, usually a school or other setting in which the main aim is not medical or clinical rehabilitation. All education levels are taken into account, from early years, compulsory schooling, further education, and lifelong learning of persons with disabilities and those working with persons with disabilities in a formal educational setting. The educational environment or setting is of importance both in terms of setting the scene in which an activity occurs and as a factor that can facilitate or hinder participation in a setting. The environment can be represented as dimensions that relate to the availability, accessibility, affordability, accommodability and acceptability of the participation situation or experience (Maxwell, 2012). By investigating the educational environment, we can shed more light on effective inclusive practices by providing more accurate representations and measures of the participation of children.

The current paper explores the methodological challenges and consequences of carrying out an international, multi-lingual, cross-comparison in-depth review of the main findings from a systematic literature search. Data come from systematic database searches using selected search terms in different languages in national databases in the partner countries. Searches were carried out in Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, English, Afrikaans, German, and Mandarin.

The main literature review aimed to explore how the ICF is currently situated in the field of education in different global contexts with a specific focus on children with disabilities, Special Educational Needs (SEN) and those requiring additional support in school. With a comparison of how the ICF is applied a different levels and processes in various global contexts, this paper aims to:

• Explore the methodological consequences of carrying out an in-depth systematic review of the ICF and education in different global contexts.
• Describe the practical implications of carrying out the review.

7.02% of students are diagnosed as having special educational needs (SEN) in Europe (EASNIE, 2020). Germany thus represents the European average with 7.2% of students with SEN. Austria is below the average at 5.3%. This ranks both countries in the middle of the field. Nevertheless, the evaluation of the national action plans show that inclusive structures are neither comprehensively implemented in Austria nor Germany yet. Data as well as the evaluation results indicate that the ratification of the CRPD – by Austria in 2007 and Germany in 2009 – is thus not synonymous with the actual implementation of the right to inclusive education.

As all European countries, Austria and Germany operate with assessment strategies to categorize students regarding their abilities. The organization of (inclusive) education and learning in both countries indicate that school type and curriculum are determined based on categorizing students by disability. The procedure to examine SEN itself is an administrative act operated by the school authorities. Classification systems like ICD-10 are used that are primarily medical and deficit-oriented diagnostic instruments (Buchner & Proyer, 2020; Gasterstädt et al., 2021). Thus, the organization of education and learning is shaped by traditional disability categories rather than an inclusive understanding guided by fostering participation, empowerment, and self-determination (Florian, 2014; Prengel, 2016). Based on an inclusive understanding, both scholars and practitioners proclaim the organization of assessments that consider environmental factors, are conducted by multi-professional teams, and include inclusive classifications like ICF (Moretti et al., 2012; Sanches-Ferreira et al., 2014). This requires shifting the focus from diagnostics to pedagogics and thus organizational measures with bottom-up rather than top-down approaches.

It results in the trilemma of organizing (inclusive) education and learning regarding the impact of (1) (inter)national policy conditions, (2) the bureaucratically located top-down approach at the exo and macro level, and (3) inclusive bottom-up approaches at the micro and meso level. Researching this trilemma opens the following questions:

1) To what extent do SEN assessments organize inclusive education (in the German and Austrian school systems)?

2) To what extent is the idea of inclusive education reflected in the educational policy agendas for the organizational implementation of inclusive education in Germany and Austria?

The paper contributes to the broad debate on policy-making to implement inclusive education and resulting from this organizational implication to foster social inclusion and diversity, using Austria and Germany as examples.

Theoretically, Lipskys’ (1969, 2010) Street-Level Bureaucracy (SLB) Theory frames desk research. The theory deals with “how people experience public policies in realm that are critical to our welfare and sense of community” (S. xii). It is investigated by researching the micro level of how bureaucratical procedures are contextualized within the interaction of street-level bureaucrats (teachers and educators) and their clients (students). The research topic focuses on the SEN procedure and its impact on inclusive education and teaching. On this basis, Brodkin (2011, 2016) developed another perspective of SLB theory by focusing on the meso level and “those organizations and agencies that directly bring policies and programs to people” (p. 444). Both theoretical approaches are relevant for my work in order to triangulate the findings of the desk research against the background of a holistic systemic view.

Children’s voices are important, and they have the right to be heard (Petersen & Kornerup, 2021). For example, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) states that children have the right to express themselves and be heard in matters that affect their lives (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1990, Article 12). At the same time, research shows that students would like to have the opportunity to talk about teaching and learning, and that they have important insights to contribute to the development of the learning environment in school (Rudduck, 2007). This applies, for example, to how students can be involved and participate more/better (Ulvseth, 2019).

This presentation analyzes how students experience working together in pairs. Furthermore, it discusses methodological considerations in relation to getting students to talk in interviews about learning in pairs. Thus, a 3-year research project named “SYKL” (which is an acronym for Systematized Reciprocal Peer Tutoring) is presented, in which 25 teachers and supervisors have been trained to teach mathematics and science in 4. grade in a new way, after which they had to test the intervention for 13 weeks.

The way of organizing the reciprocal peer tutoring based on subject didactics is new. To fulfill the role as a tutor the student is given prompt cards and hints for the specific task prepared by the teacher. In science and mathematics didactics, there has been a focus on inquiry-based teaching for years, while the dialogic interaction in relation to the inquiry-based teaching has been more neglected (Lehesvuori et al., 2018). Teachers use groupwork on a regular basis. While doing so teachers rarely employ explicit systematic peer tutoring strategies aligned with the academic topics. Even though teachers put an effort into matching students that will work together productively, they often neglect to provide systematic guidance as to how the students should cooperate (EVA, 2021).

Only few studies examine the benefits of peer tutoring from both an academic and social perspective. A systematic review (Tiftikci, 2021) confirms that most studies are carried out with either the aim of measuring the academic benefit or the significance for the students' social relations. In the SYKL project, the ambition was to support social relations through the academic work, and therefore we have investigated both the academic and social benefits and possible connections.

The presentation addresses two research questions:

1. How do students experience to participate in reciprocal peer tutoring (SYKL)?
2. What methodological barriers and potentials can be identified when students are to talk about their experience of participating in reciprocal peer tutoring (SYKL)?

The starting point is based on theory of communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 2003) and inclusive forms of practice (Booth, 2011; Harris, Carrington, and Ainscow 2017) as well as research on peer tutoring (Thurston et. al, 2020). SYKL builds on a sociocultural and dialogic foundation (Bakhtin, 1981) and focuses on the inquiry-based aspects of mathematics and science. According to Alexander (2020), dialogic teaching must be practiced in a way that is adapted to the specific subject, as there may be variations in the way of asking questions, arguing, and applying subject concepts in, for example, mathematics and science.

With a term inspired from mathematics didactics, it can be said that SYKL tries to clarify the socio-academic norms (Schmidt, 2015), which means the expectations that exist in the academic community. These can be norms such as explaining and justifying proposed solutions for tasks as well as listening actively (Makar & Fielding-Wells, 2019).

International studies in inclusive education in mathematics point out that students have unequal access to learn and participate (Cin & Cifti 2017; Reinholz & Shah 2018; Rubel 2016; Lambert 2015). In the most dominant form of math education, teachers explain the task and give a few examples, after which the students work individually. Lambert (2015) and Schmidt (2016) argue that the academic norms in mathematics – like remembering rules and working individually without hesitating – favours certain students, while students with a more creative and problem-solving approach are excluded. Lim et al. (2015) state that learning and the sense of belonging is promoted, when the teacher develops classroom norms and establishes a learning environment in which students recognize divergent thinking.

As a contribution to the international studies this paper presents some of the results from a three-year research project in a Danish context. The project investigates how an intervention (SYKL) with reciprocal peer tutoring in mathematics and science in 4th grade affects the students' engagement, participation and learning outcomes. In contrast to most international peer tutoring projects, SYKL focus on both social relations and academic inclusion at the same time.

SYKL is based on a sociocultural perspective in learning (Vygotsky, 2019) and emphasize the importance of inquiry-based learning (Blomhøj, 2021). In SYKL students are specifically taught how to help each other and engage in academic conversations when working in pairs. SYKL is inspired by interventions with peer tutoring, where students take on different roles (Thurston et al., 2007; Thurston et al., 2020). The students are assigned one of two positions, either as tutor or tutee. To fulfill the role of ‘coach’ or ‘helper’, the tutor receives prompt cards with generic questions and academic hints for solving the specific task. During a lesson students switch roles so that both can participate in meaning making and commit to the relation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ assisting strategies in SYKL and explore how these strategies promote or inhibit inclusion. In the paper inclusion is understood as “maximizing the participation of all children” (Allan, 2008:33), and participation is understood as learning in collaboration with others, while students are involved in the academic field and accepted for who they are (Booth, 2011). To create knowledge about students’ participation we use Wenger’s (2004) terms and ask: To what extent do we see "legitimate peripheral participation" that can potentially lead to full participation, and to what extent do we see "marginalized non-participation" that potentially leads to full exclusion from the student community?

Whether students are included in the student community is related to the different strategies they bring into play. This phenomenon can be explained with the concept of social capital (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1996), which is the aggregate of the resources linked to being part of a group. Bourdieu emphasizes that people tend to acknowledge one another and affirm group membership through rituals, and he refers to these activities as investment strategies. Inspired by Bourdieu, we ask: Which "cards" do the students play to become legitimate participants in SYKL. What counts as trump?

Schmidt (2015) shows that students use different strategies to be included, and that these strategies are both academically and socially grounded at the same time. Thus, there is a close connection between acceptance, participation, and performance. In the presentation this is understood as a socio-academic inclusion, which is a lens we use when analyzing the students’ socio-academic investment strategies.

Thus, the driving research questions are:

• What kind of conversational actions characterize the students’ different assisting strategies in SYKL?
• How does different assisting strategies affect the socio-academic inclusion?

The importance of social skills for mental health and social participation has been investigated sufficiently. As teachers are required to foster social skills in daily class but are also confronted with limited time resources, an economical way of fostering social skills implicitly by using specific teaching methods seems to be expedient.

Investigating a form of implicit learning that doesn’t involve the teacher directly in the mechanisms of peer influence seems to be promising. Peer influence has been confirmed repeatedly for antisocial behavior while studies on this effect for social skills or similar constructs is scarce but promising (Busching & Krahé, 2020). Consequently, the question arises if small effects of peer influence concerning social skills might be enhanced by providing students with opportunities to learn from their peers and therefore be influenced by them. Bandura (1971) postulated, that only behavior that it shown explicitly can be adapted and later repeated by learners. A teaching method that requires social skills in terms of communication and cooperation is cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2002). Cooperative learning evidently fosters academic achievement (Slavin, 1983) and requires social skills (Johnson & Johnson, 2002). Furthermore, it seems to foster prosocial behavior (van Ryzin, 2020). Accordingly, it supports teachers on both teaching goals. Within the SOZIUS project (www.sozius-projekt.de) a specific form of cooperative learning was established that allows to focus on social interactions (Hank, Weber & Huber, 2022). In this way, especially children who are lacking social skills are supposed to get the chance to observe socially successful behavior and ultimately adapt it.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether cooperative learning might enhance social learning opportunities concerning social skills. Therefore, it is hypothesized that social skills increase in classes conducting cooperative learning (Hypothesis 1). Furthermore, especially students with lower social skills are expected to benefit from highly skilled peer contexts in cooperative learning settings (Hypothesis 2).

The development of social relationships has been offered as an important justification for the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in regular schools. However, recent sociometric research has consistently reported that integrated students with SEND run a greater risk of being socially marginalized within their class (Bossaert, De Boer et al., 2015; Pijl & Frostad, 2010; Schwab, 2015) and have fewer stable friendships than their typically developing (TD) peers (Frostad, Mjaavatn, & Pijl, 2011; Schwab, 2019). The overwhelming evidence on the poor social standing of students with SEND in mainstream settings is often attributed to the insufficient sets of age-group appropriate social skills possessed by these students (Garrote, 2017; Schwab Gebhardt, Krammer & Gasteiger-Klicpera, 2015), which prevent them from interacting and forming relationships with classmates. Unsurprisingly then, a number of school-based intervention programs have been developed with a view to enhancing the socio-emotional development of students with SEND and, ultimately, foster their social participation (Garrote, Dessemontet & Opitz, 2017).

The increased utilisation of school-based programmes aiming at improving students’ social emotional wellbeing could be attributed to research showing social emotional learning (SEL) competencies influence all students’ academic engagement and achievement (e.g., DiPerna, Lei, Cheng, Hart, & Bellinger, 2017) and decrease some concurrent problem behaviors (e.g., DiPerna, Lei, Bellinger, & Cheng, 2015). Moreover, having well-developed social skills and engaging in prosocial behavior can assist traditionally marginalized groups of students, such as students with SEND, to become members of peer groups within their class and ultimately develop friendships.

The present study reports the outcomes of a recently developed such intervention, the XX program. This programme was developed within the scope of an ERASMUS+ funded project, which aimed at improving the social participation and inclusion of all students aged between 8 and 11 years. It consists of 12 sessions, each with an approximate duration of 45 to 60 minutes, conducted two times a week, over a period of 6 weeks. The program does not have a narrow focus on individual students with SEND or those who stand out as marginalized but, instead, it is implemented at the class level thus addressing the entirety of the student population. The programme was designed to strengthen students’ social-emotional skills (empathy, collaboration, self-control, assertiveness) with an emphasis on their prosocial behavior. Students learn to recognize their own feelings and those of their peers and develop the ability to deal with them. Furthermore, it is aimed to enhance students’ self-awareness (self-concept) and increase their understanding of inclusion and acceptance of diversity. Ultimately, peer inclusiveness and the development of new friendships while strengthening existing relationships are important outcomes.

To sum up, the XX intervention activities have been developed in a way that can be easily implemented into the school lessons to establish social routines in the class and sustainably foster all students’ social-emotional skills as a crucial requirement for social participation. More importantly, the programme’s experiential activities (e.g., artistic and reflective tasks, role-play activities etc) can be implemented by regular teachers in their classes without the supervision of a specialist (i.e. a psychologists). The present study represents the first systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of this newly developed programme.

For this session, researchers will discuss findings from two studies investigating academic and behavioral interventions for students with/at-risk for emotional-behavioural disorders (EBD) in inclusive settings. First, findings will be presented from an intervention study focusing on training elementary students with EBD to be cross-age tutors for younger students with mathematics difficulties. Outcomes related to mathematics performance, positive behaviour improvement, and change in risk-status for EBD will be reported. Components of effective peer tutoring models will also be discussed, as well as how students with EBD function as tutors and recieve possible positive benefits from the role. Second, researchers will present findings on the effects of an intervention package, called Engaged Leaners, on elementary students' engagement, inattention, and reading skills. Components of the intervention package include providing visual schedules, high levels of behavior specific praise, a token economy system, and self-regulation strategies. Both studies/intervention models were designed and evaluated within inclusive educational settings.

Study 1: Inclusive classrooms continue to demonstrate a need for effective instructional techniques and arrangements that meet the needs of students with varying disabilities, simultaneously within inclusive settings. Barriers to certain instructional models and interventions become compounded when cost(s) and/or feasibility become issues (e.g., personnel, materials, training; Bettini et al., 2015). Cross-age tutoring has shown promise of effectiveness and feasibility for practitioner implementation, and may be suitable for addressing intensive academic needs as well as providing tutors with EBD opportunities to practice and develop social and behavioural skills in an academic context (Watts et al., 2019).

Study 2: Identifying effective mechanisms to support student engagement during reading instruction for students with co-occurring reading difficulties and inattention (RD+Inattention) is a critical issue in education. Therefore, Engaged Learners was developed over a series of studies be an intervention that can be easily integrated into an evidence-based reading curriculums to support student engagement to instruction, and delivered by novice interventionists. The purpose of the study was to test the impact of Engaged Leaners on student engagement as well as its social validity, usability, and feasibility when integrated into an evidence-based reading intervention for Grade 3-5 students with RD+inattention. Engaged Learners includes the following components: (a) visual schedule, (b) high levels of behavior specific praise, (c) token economy, and (d) self-regulation. Through integrating Engaged Learners into an evidence-based reading curriculum, we aimed to address the following research questions: (1) What are the effects of integrating Engaged Learners into an evidence-based reading intervention on student engagement for students with RD+Inattention?, (2) To what extent do students find Engaged Learners to be a socially valid and effective program, and (3) To what extend do interventionists find Engaged Learners to be socially valid, feasible, usable, and effective program?

Relevance to Learners, Families, and/or Educators of Diverse Groups:
Students with challenging behaviors are frequently found to have both behavioural and academic deficits (Kern, 2015). Additionally, teachers, both general and special education, have been found to be ill equipped to meet the intensive needs of this population (Allday et al., 2012). These needs, if left unaddressed, frequently lead to detrimental outcomes during adult years (Wynne et al., 2013). Focusing on these deficit areas, this presentation will provide researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers with findings related to effective academic and behavioural interventions for students with challenging and/or off-task behaviours in inclusive education settings. By providing evidence and strategies for effective practices, we aim to improve both academic and behavioral outcomes for this population of students and their families.

Bullying is a model of social behaviour that develops and escalates if not limited in time. Bullying can be verbal, physical, or cyberbullying. The causes of bullying and violence in schools are peers' physical deficiencies, gender, social inequality, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity, gender identity (UNESCO, 2019). When analysing bullying situations in schools, the social context must be taken into account. Attention should be shifted from perceiving bullying as a relationship between two persons (perpetrator and victim) to perceiving bullying as a process involving and affecting bystanders - students who are present in bullying situations (Monks et al., 2009; Salimi et al., 2020; Padgett&Notar, 2013). The actions, behaviour and attitudes of bystanders can both increase and decrease the level of bullying. Research suggests that empowering bystanders, developing the necessary tools and encouraging them to step in and become upstanders - students who engage in bullying situations in order to reduce or prevent them – should become an integral part of bullying prevention programs (Cornu et al., 2022).

The current study aims to analyse how to enable and encourage bystanders to become upstanders. The research question would be: How upstanders' behavior is promoted to prevent bullying at school? In the literature we can find several theorethical approaches or models that explain what actions should be taken for bystanders to become upstanders. The bystanders’ intervention model (BIM) created by Latané and Darley (1970), which has been applied mostly to situations of safety and health issues, generally focuses on the bystanders' capability to interpret the situation, select a strategy, and take action accordingly (Nickerson et al., 2014). The model proposed by Dunn (2010) stresses more pedagogical aspects of intervention and highlights an essential component of intervention—empathy, which should be raised along with the necessary skills for intervention and assistance to victims (Barnett et al., 2019). Several programs focusing on the promotion of positive group dynamics and students' wellbeing have been successfully implemented in Latvia, for example "Promotion of Positive Behaviour in Children with Institutional Care Experience" and "Social Emotional Development," both created by the University of Latvia (Daniela, Nimante, Martinsone, 2018). However, there is still a need to emphasize more individual responsibility of each student for creating an inclusive environment and acting as an upstander in cases where there are signals of aggressive peer behaviors that could easily transform into bullying, and research analyzing the transformation from bystanders to upstanders could be very helpful in filling gaps in awareness toward bullying and the roles that students take in bullying situations.

Psychiatric diagnoses of ADHD have increased globally since the 1980s, reaching an explosive rate during the first decades of the twenty-first century (in Sjöberg 2019, 3; Simoni 2018) in Israel and elsewhere. ADHD is often presented by sociologists as the quintessential example of medicalization (Conrad & Potter 2000), the process “by which nonmedical problems become defined and treated as medical problems, usually in terms of illness and disorders” (Conrad 2007, 4). While seminal sociological studies (Conrad & Potter 2000; Lakoff 2000) have elucidated the social origins of the current “epidemic” of ADHD, little attention has been paid to local mechanisms of ADHD medicalization and the ways in which laypeople negotiate the meaning of ADHD. In addition, research emphasizes that it is important to deepen the understanding of how the phenomenon is shaped “by the specific institutional, social, and cultural factors” (Frazzetto et al., cited in Frigerio and Montali, 2013). Following Conrad and Potters' (2000) call to investigate the local mechanisms of medicalization, this research explores teachers' positioning in the social field of medicalization. Analyzing in-depth interviews with teachers from two Israel schools, I show how they view their role while encountering ADHD children in school and how contemporary cultural tendencies in Israel shape this role.

School is the most common institutional context for the discovery of children’s difficulties (Rafalovich 2005), and the categorization of their academic and social functioning via available systems of knowledge (Singh 2006). Studies point to the increasingly clinical role of schools in medicalizing childhood, while teachers are perceived as a “primary source of diagnostic information” (Garro & Yarris 2009, 563). It is argued that teachers identify, assess, and administer medication to “problematic” children, acting as intermediaries between clinician and parent (Malacrida 2004 Rafalovich 2005; Hjörne 2005). At the same time, teachers’ expectations of the students are influenced by diagnoses (Batzle et al. 2010).

The perceptions and positioning of teachers in the social field of ADHD is an important subject of research, primarily because of the controversial nature of ADHD as a diagnostic and clinical category. ADHD is one of the most controversial psychiatric categories. As “academic critiques spill over into popular discourse” (Malacrida 2004, 64), there is contentious debate among the lay public on the legitimacy of using medication to treat ADHD (McLeod et al. 2007), while different groups of social actors, among them teachers, frame problems linked to ADHD using different explanations and mixed discourses (Frigerio and Montali 2013). Thus ADHD children are at the center of a social controversy about the “real” causes of their behavior and the “best” way to treat them (Frigerio and Montali, 2013, 586).

I will illustrate that teachers use various, sometimes contradictory, discourses to explain ADHD diagnosis, and develop what might be called a unique pedagogical expertise. Such “lay expertise” (Eyal 2019) is based on their practical experience rather than on formal training. Teachers felt that they must find pedagogical strategies to cope with the ADHD student and see themselves as morally committed to include such student within the learning process, whether this student is officially diagnosed or not, whether they’re “with a pill [medication] or without it.” However, they enact their expertise under conditions of public mistrust: parents’ “accusation” that teachers are the main supporters of troubled students’ medication challenges teachers’ ability to be perceived as reliable pedagogical experts with the ADHD children. Despite parental mistrust, teachers are motivated to include/contain "problematic" children. I explain such motivation by local cultural and institutional conditions.

The beliefs, attitudes and practices towards attention to diversity of the different members of the university community can facilitate or hinder educational inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2015, Messiou et al., 2016), being the obligation of university teachers to raise awareness among future teachers of early childhood and primary education of this reality and their role in it.

In relation to the prediction and explanation of such beliefs and the behavior of others based on the attribution of mental states to themselves and others, Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the cognitive human ability to do such a thing (Astington, 1993; Wellman, 1990). This skill supports the possibility of guessing the underlying desires, intentions, thoughts and feelings (Dennett, 1978), and it's developing during childhood. Such capacities are found to be related to a variety of social and cognitive factors such as attitudes and moral reasoning.

According to Ajzen (2005) and Fishbein & Ajzen (2010), in their formulation on the theory of reasoned action, people's beliefs and attitudes are the variables that, to a greater extent, predict their behaviors. More than any other psychological construct, attitudes have been at the center of attempts to predict and explain behavior in a wide range of areas, such as organizational behavior, political behavior, and racial discrimination. In fact, as Hammond y Emler (2010) claim, variables such as attitudes to institutional authority, strength of support for moral values and maturity of socio-moral reasoning have all been identified as potential predictors of adolescent delinquency.

Consistent with Asif et al. (2020), sustainable development is promoted when the system of education provides the learners with an opportunity to equip themselves with moral values, skills, and competences that assist them in effecting personal and community positive changes. For this purpose, teachers play an important role as moral agents, and students consider the teacher a role model.

Two decades ago, Nuévalos-Ruiz (2003) tested, also in university students, the discussion of moral dilemmas as a strategy to provide moral cognitive experiences that facilitate the natural progression of moral judgment through the exposition of a peer modeling. Besides, recent studies (i.e. Daou et al., 2022), come to demonstrate that group learning based on debates are effective strategies in the acquisition of skills related to personal, social, learning to learn, citizenship, awareness and cultural expressions, essential to influence the beliefs and attitudes of our future teachers.

Our aim is related to the learning of strategies focused on developing moral reasoning. In relation to this aim, Han, Dawson et al. (2020) found that when the judgments were made based on the preferred moral schema, the reaction time for moral judgments was significantly moderated by the moral developmental status. In addition, as a participant becomes more confident with moral judgment, he or she differentiates the preferred versus other schemas better particularly when the participant’s abilities for moral judgment are more developed.

In diagnoses of our time, crises - and how they overlap (Polycrises) - have become a central category to describe current and future societal conditions, as well as challenges and opportunities that educational systems worldwide need to (pro-)actively confront. These comprise, amongst others, the climate crisis, the energy crisis, the economic crisis, the diversity crisis (currently also in relation to digital bias), and the COVID-19 crisis. The threats and disruptions of these and other crises already have had and will bring further changes to the future of the individual, society, and the planet, as well as the systems of Education and their contexts. Crises need not only be seen as dystopian (external) events affecting systems but also in relation to their potential to initiate turning points for transformations and changes by social actors operating in different contexts. For example, personal and interactive crises can serve as starting points for learning and Education, especially when teachers accompany them well. We see Education and vulnerability as deeply intertwined. While Education in itself must be seen as a vulnerable social process since individuals need to change their current understanding of themselves, towards the world and one another, also the contexts in which Education takes place are highly volatile and vulnerable to external circumstances: The way in which processes of Education and Bildung are structured through policies and finance mechanisms bracket the experiences that teachers and students can make in these systems and thereby opening and limiting opportunities for dealing with and utilizing crises for their educational potential. In our symposium, we want to investigate the perspectives of students and adults who have been experiencing times of crisis not only in these already vulnerable educational contexts but also from a position of previous marginalization prone to reinforce prior, shift, or create new vulnerabilities. Educational Research conducted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated existing inequalities in Education, especially for children and adults living under conditions of poverty, disability, and 'divergent' or non-European backgrounds. Yet, Research in which these groups' own perspectives on their perceptions of vulnerability have been the starting ground to investigate deeper contemporary structural issues of in/equality remain scarce. This symposium will shed light on this desideratum. We will take the COVID-19 pandemic as an example to embed and problematize those experiences. Not only do we want to give students the possibility to voice their experiences from their point of view, but we also want to investigate the contexts in which those experiences were generated, e.g., isolation, rules in children's homes, the provision of (educational) support and accommodative measures during school closures and lockdowns as well as their impact on students' possibilities to participate in online or remote ways of communication. In the symposium, we want to take a comparative perspective by investigating the situation in three European countries (Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom) as well as Canada and see how far different approaches in dealing with the pandemic can be seen as reflections of how differing contexts address, thematize, react and adapt to situations of crisis in educational contexts. We want to show how these contexts differ not only in an international comparison but also within countries and societies themselves. Our Research also indicates that, albeit in fragile ways, crises can lead to new forms of individual and collective (political) agency and conscientization toward/equality and its social production amongst groups considered vulnerable. In that regard, Educational Research can serve a catalyzing function, raising various ethical and methodological issues and challenges, some of which will also be shared and discussed within this symposium.

This paper investigates the experiences of children and teenagers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This group is particularly at risk of being affected by negative consequences of the COVID-19 situation because they experienced the pandemic during their transition from childhood to young adolescence, which is a vulnerable phase. In the project "Impediments and enablers to schooling of non/privileged students during the COVID-19 pandemic – a comparison between Canada and Germany", funded by the German government, we compare how students from non/privileged milieus experienced school and out-of-school (including family) life during the different phases of the pandemic, as well as the school and classroom ways of dealing with them. An indicator of levels of inclusion, equity, and diversity provided by students' "sense of belonging" in schools. This indicator reflects how students' individual and group needs are being accommodated in both academics and school life in general. Canada ranked 15th out of 32 for this measure, and Germany 25th (OECD, 2018, p. 193). School contexts differ between these two countries as well: while the German states has a tracked school system that distinguishes vocational and academic tracks, Canada's provinces have only one track. The different school tracks correlate with different socio-economic privileged milieus, while inequality in Canadian schools is related to the school catchment area. The context also differs since schools in Germany were closed for almost a year – with small breaks in between – while Canadian schools only closed for two months at the beginning of the pandemic. In the paper, the experiences of non-privileged students on schooling and out-of-school life in Canada and Germany are contrasted. This will be done based on group interviews conducted with small groups in the schools. The comparison shows that non-privileged students from Germany were experiencing exclusion from educational resources much more than their peers in Canada. Due to the lack of devices and internet access, they were not included in day-to-day options in remote exchange with teachers and peers. Moreover, they were not engaging in other activities, like gardening, at home. In contrast to their Canadian peers, the German students were offered less support, like reducing academic expectations and offering personal support in working on tasks.

OECD. (2018). Equity in Education. Breaking down barriers to social mobility, PISA. OECD, Publishing. https://doi.org/doi:https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264073234-en

This contribution sheds light on potential shifts in the perception of vulnerabilities and their impact on institutionalised education and care from the perspective of those who may have been, remain, or have become (even more) vulnerable. Rather than affixing the label of "vulnerability" to a particular subpopulation or seeing vulnerability (solely) as an inherent characteristic in individuals, we follow Luna (2019), who proposes a contextual understanding of vulnerability. She develops an understanding that the vulnerabilities might be subject to change if situational contexts change, such as that an individual is no longer or even more susceptible to vulnerability. Crises, as in our case, the COVID-19 crisis, can serve as an excellent example of unravelling the multilayeredness and potential cascading effects of vulnerability itself and the diversity among those being perceived as vulnerable. As indicated in this symposium's umbrella text, individual dispositions of becoming vulnerable have to be seen in relation to contextual factors. In crises and their aftermath, well-established, inscribed, or outdated institutional logics that often control or guide vulnerable peoples' lives may be shattered or exacerbated. Support structures, processes, and interrelations may be subject to dysfunction, disruption, or new orders. Shocks to the system during COVID are being addressed and negotiated from an abstract or institutional perspective (Mladenov & Brennan, 2021), seldomly do those who might or have been affected get a say. The research project "Cov_Enable: Reimagining Vulnerabilities in times of crisis" (FWF Project P 34641) has been tracking some of these developments. It aims to shed light on how conceptions of vulnerability are being reshaped and travel between the political-, organisational- and individual levels (Subasi-Singh, 2022). In particular, it wants to disentangle how (new) discourses and practice (formations) in the contexts of (inclusive) education and (supported) living are impacting children, youth, and adults labeled as vulnerable. In this presentation, we will use selected samples of first-hand accounts of students and adults with disabilities from two contrasting lifeworlds and governing institutional systems in the fields of schools and supported living of remaining, recently being made (further), and or no longer being vulnerable. We aim to elucidate an understanding of the multilayered-ness and contextual interdependency of varied institutional changes in response to crises and the diverse forms of individual and collective (political) agency and how these are being enabled or suppressed by institutional actors.

Luna, F. (2019). Identifying and evaluating layers of vulnerability–a way forward. developing world bioethics, 19(2), 86-95. Mladenov, T., & Brennan, C. S. (2021). The global COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor: Implementation, findings, disability studies response. Disability & society, 36(8), 1356-1361. Subasi-Singh, S. (2022). Putting on Intersectional Glasses: Listening to the Voice of the Vulnerable. Social Inclusion, 11(1).

The Voices project engaged with 1860 children and young people aged five-to-18 years over 21 months in the North East of England during the pandemic about their experiences of COVID-19 across multiple life facets through participatory methods using drawing, writing, focus groups, comics and action cycles. They were from 70+ mostly economically disadvantaged schools and groups in North East England. We heard what it was like doing online schooling at home and attending school with Covid-19 arrangements, and we heard about varied and complex aspects of informal learning and experience. This project was co-produced by researchers and practitioners from Newcastle University (UK) and the charity/NGO Children North East, and with children and young people. We draw on the work of Forbes and Kerr (2022) of asset-based approaches to communities considered vulnerable. They suggest the need for “policymakers to shift attention from ‘fixing’ the perceived deficits of disadvantaged neighbourhoods, to recognising and building on the resources, or assets, they hold” (Forbes and Kerr, 2022, 1). This paper considers this juxtaposition between assets and vulnerabilities from a number of perspectives and we present two of them in some detail. These include, 1) taking a non-stigmatising approach to sampling and 2) co-producing some aspects of the research with children and young people. In terms of sampling, we set out to engage with children who were from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and from a range of vulnerable situations. Our paper discussed how we negotiated building our sample at the same time as refusing from an ethical perspective to ask for individual vulnerability data. Co-production assumes mutual respect for each other’s contribution to design, create and deliver (research, services, actions) and therefore requires the recognition of the assets of all those involved. A range of different methods (focus groups, drawing pictures, writing, producing comics with artists, producing a TikTok video) were built into the project to enable children and young people to respond in different ways. Co-production was built into the project from the start with action cycles co-produced with young people engaging with stakeholders in the areas of transport, employment and digital lives. We consider what arose for children as home school boundaries collided in a number of ways not all of them expected and themes from the research were in every aspect of children’s lives.

Forbes, C., & Kerr, K. (2022). Endogenous assets-mapping: a new approach to conceptualizing assets in order to understand young people’s capabilities and how these relate to their desired educational outcomes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Cambridge Journal of Education, 1-17.

Inclusive education is linked to a human rights-based approach (UNESCO, 2017). Teachers should be equipped with the appropriate skills to teach diverse pupils, seeing individual differences as opportunities for enriching learning (Ainscow, 2020). In the literature there is evidence that inclusive education helps ensure both quality education and later social inclusion (Kefallinou et al., 2002).

Pre-service teachers’ and teacher’s knowledge, values, and beliefs are important for inclusion. Teachers with positive attitudes towards inclusion are more likely to adapt their pedagogy to support all pupils (Sharma et al., 2006). Developing effective inclusive practice begins in the teachers’ professional preparation (Rouse, 2008). Therefore, it is clear that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) has an important role in teachers’ professional development as inclusive practitioners (Sharma and Nutta,l 2016), as they learn about pedagogy and they reflect on key values about human differences. However, as there is uncertainty around the implementation of inclusive practices and the support of all pupils in the classroom (Florian, 2012; Black-Hawkins and Amrhein, 2014), a focus on inclusive practices based on pre-service teachers’ and teachers’ perspectives, and on identifying exclusionary practices is needed (Slee, 2011). Therefore, this symposium will present pre-service teachers’ and teachers’ perspectives on inclusive practices in three different countries: Scotland, Finland and Cyprus, recognising the contribution of pre-service and fully registered teachers’ perspectives to the improvement of school experiences and inclusive practice.

Initially, the symposium will present the Scottish policy context on inclusion, and teacher education. Data from focus group interviews with pre-service primary teachers in Scotland will be presented offering examples of good quality inclusive practice, contradictions, and different interpretations. Subsequently, this symposium will discuss the Finnish context. More specifically, teacher education and policy will be presented. Pre-service teachers’ perspectives of inclusive practices linked to teacher autonomy will be discussed. Furthermore, the symposium will present findings from Cyprus. A brief overview of the teacher education system and the education system in Cyprus will be offered and data that show teachers finding ways to teach inclusively despite the systemic and attitudinal obstacles will be discussed, closing with an optimistic perspective.

Thereby, this symposium will offer an international perspective on the approaches and practices that have been adopted by pre-service teachers and teachers, presenting findings from three different countries. By presenting and discussing data and findings from three different contexts the congruences and differences between these countries’ national systems will be highlighted. Collectively, the papers that will be presented in this symposium make an important contribution to international debates about how teachers can and should be prepared for inclusive education. This work is current and relevant particularly to teacher educators internationally as teacher education is being questioned, inequality is rising, and teachers are required to teach diverse pupils. The findings of the studies will inform future planning in teachers’ professional education contributing to the quality of initial teacher education programmes in Europe and beyond.

In Scotland, inclusion of all children in mainstream schools is an important provision and legal requirement for the local authorities (Riddell, 2009; Allan, 2010). Teachers in Scotland are expected to be prepared to respond to the diversity in their classrooms. The National Framework for Inclusion (Scottish Universities Inclusion Group, 2022) is intended to support pre-service teachers, fully registered teachers and teacher educators to develop and sustain inclusive practice within their diverse professional contexts. The Framework for Inclusion is closely linked with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) Professional Standards for Teachers (GTCS, 2021). Initial teacher education programmes across Scotland are based on these standards, embed inclusion and encourage a response to learner diversity that avoids marking some students as different (Florian and Black- Hawkins 2011). This paper will present the Scottish policy context on inclusion, and teacher education. It will then present data derived from two focus groups with 2nd year and 4th year pre-service primary teachers in Scotland, as pre-service teachers are positive of the principles of inclusive education (Goddard and Evans, 2018) but unsure of the implementation of inclusive practices (Black-Hawkins and Amrhein, 2014). The aim was to discuss with pre-service teachers about the meaning and qualities of inclusive practice, with examples, as developing effective inclusive practice begins in the teachers’ professional preparation when pre-service teachers reconsider their own beliefs about human differences, challenge any assumptions and develop inclusive practices. A thematic analysis method (Clarke and Braun, 2013) offered information about their understandings of inclusive practice and led to important themes including differentiation and relationships. The findings are significant and contribute to the research on teachers’ professional preparation as inclusive practitioners. Examples of good quality inclusive practice aligning with the concept of inclusive pedagogy (Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2011) as well as practices that are designed for ‘most’ students will be shared, illustrating pre-service teachers’ (mis) understandings, and some contradictions. The paper will highlight the importance of values and pedagogy. The findings are of relevance to a European audience as they invite reflection on teacher education, the existing policies, practices, and teachers’ expectations.

Allan, J. (2010) ‘Questions of Inclusion in Scotland and Europe’, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 25(2), pp. 199–208. Black-Hawkins, K. and Amrhein, B. (2014) Valuing student teachers' perspectives: researching inclusively in inclusive education?, International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 37(4), 357-375. Clarke, V. and Braun, V. (2013) ‘Teaching thematic analysis: over- coming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning.’ The Psychologist, 26, 120–3. Florian, L. and Black- Hawkins, K. (2011) Exploring inclusive pedagogy, British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), 813–828. Goddard and Evans (2018) Primary Pre-Service Teachers' Attitudes Towards Inclusion Across the Training Years. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43(6), 122-142. General Teaching Council for Scotland. (2021). Professional Standards for Teachers. Edinburgh, The General Teaching Council for Scotland. Riddell, S. (2009) 'Social justice, equality and inclusion in Scottish education', Discourse, 30(3), pp. 283-297. Scottish Universities Inclusion Group (SUIG). 2022. National Framework for Inclusion 3rd edn. Aberdeen, The Scottish Universities Inclusion Group. https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-standards/national-framework-for-inclusion/

Inclusive education is often linked to teachers’ sufficient autonomy and collaborative practices (Ainscow 1999), such as co-teaching, collaboration with parents and multiprofessional collaboration (Mitchell and Sutherland, 2020) in order to develop the working culture towards more collective whole school approaches (e.g. Sailor, 2017). Autonomy and its scope can be understood in several ways (Giddens, 1984; Pantić, 2015). In Finland the educational system gives high autonomy to teachers. Autonomy is described as pedagogical freedom (e.g. Sahlberg, 2010) meaning that each teacher can make their own pedagogical choices in their classroom (Pollari et al., 2018). This approach requires strong teacher engagement in order to work (Pollari et al., 2018; Välimaa 2021) and from an inclusive education perspective it can be understood as engagement to celebrate diversity in the school environment (Ainscow, 1999). Initially, this paper will present the Finnish policy context on inclusion, and teacher education. It will then focus on pre-service teachers’ perceptions of inclusive practices, and it will show how their descriptions are connected with teachers’ autonomy. The data derived from two focus group interviews with Finnish primary pre-service teachers: a group with 2nd year pre-service teachers and a group with 4th year pre-service teachers. Interviews followed the same thematic structure, focusing on inclusive practices. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically (Clarke and Braun, 2013). The idea of inclusive practices was fragile in the data indicating there is a need to strengthen it during teacher education in Finland. The findings emphasised the link between inclusive practice and teachers’ autonomy. Second year students highlighted teachers’ ability to make their own choices in their classrooms as an inclusive practice while fourth year students considered autonomy at a school level. The idea of pedagogical freedom was discussed by second year students who focused on themselves as individual teachers, while fourth year students linked inclusive practices with collaboration and interdependency of teachers with other colleagues and agencies. These findings are not only important for Finnish teacher education. The element of teacher autonomy identified in pre-service teachers’ interviews and in the Finnish context can invite reflection and inform teacher education in different contexts, as teacher autonomy can be used as a tool to promote inclusive education internationally.

Ainscow, M. (1999) Understanding the Development of Inclusive Schools. Studies in Inclusive Education. Taylor & Francis. Clarke, V. and Braun, V. (2013) ‘Teaching thematic analysis: over- coming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning.’ The Psychologist, 26, 120–3. Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. University of California Press. Mitchell, D. and Sutherland, D. (2020) What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education Using Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies. Routledge. Pantić, N. (2015). A model for study of teacher agency for social justice, Teachers and Teaching 21(6), 759-778, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2015.1044332 Pollari, P., Salo, O. and Koski, K. (2018) In teachers we trust – The Finnish way to teach and learn. Inquiry in Education 10(1), 4. Sahlberg, P. (2010) Educational change in Finland. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan, & D. Hopkins (Eds.), Second international handbook of educational change, 323-348. Springer Sailor, W. (2017) Equity as a Basis for Inclusive Educational Systems Change. Australasian Journal of Special Education 41(1) ,1–17, doi: 10.1017/jse.2016.12 Välimaa, J. (2021). Trust in Finnish Education: A Historical Perspective. European Education 53(3-4), 168-180. doi: 10.1080/10564934.2022.2080563

This paper will begin by providing a brief overview of the teacher education system and the education system in Cyprus. It will then report on recent policy developments that indicate misinterpretations of inclusive education. Examples of recent policy developments indicating a persistence to segregate children rather than include them are: (a) the ministerial planning to strengthen special education and segregation of children with disabilities through the establishment of a national centre for the assessment of children with disabilities, the denial of the Ministry of Education to follow court decisions suggesting inclusion of children with disabilities in the mainstream class; and (b) the ministerial circular that legitimizes the segregation of children with migrant biography. In this context, significant research findings will be presented to suggest that teachers often find the ways to teach in inclusive ways, despite the systemic and attitudinal obstacles. We will report on seven female early childhood education teachers who work in public schools in Cyprus, in relation to inclusive education. These teachers were purposively selected, as they are committed to inclusive early childhood education. Data analysis entailed a thematic and narrative approach, and the findings were presented in the form of a portrait narrative, that of an imaginary teacher. The discussion highlights how children with disabilities informed teachers develop inclusive practices in a system that cannot be characterized as inclusive. The tensions and disagreements with the non-inclusive features of the system and segregating attitudes of school staff are also addressed in the discussion. In our conclusion, we draw upon some of the elements that will facilitate teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ understanding and implementation of inclusive education. First, the point is made that inclusive teachers should be knowledgeable of pedagogy – an integral part of their initial teacher education (ITE) studies (Florian and Camedda, 2020), be committed to the assumptions of inclusive pedagogies – during their ITE studies and through teacher professional learning opportunities (Ware, 2020), and work individually and collectively to educate all children. The connections are made with research from Cyprus and other countries which show that good knowledge of pedagogy and ethical commitment to inclusive education can lead to inclusive teaching (Symeonidou et al., 2022). At the same time, the concerns about the future of inclusive education are not undermined; rather they are recognized and discussed (Slee, 2018; Tomlinson, 2017).

Florian, L. and Camedda, D. (2020). Enhancing Teacher Education for Inclusion. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43 (1): 4-8. Slee, R. (2018). Inclusive Education Isn’t Dead, It Just Smells Funny. London and New York: Routledge. Symeonidou, S., Loizou, E. and Recchia, S. (2022). The Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Education: Interdisciplinary Research and Dialogue. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2022.2158632 Tomlinson, S. (2017). A Sociology of Special and Inclusive Education. London and New York: Routledge. Ware, L. (2020). Writing, Identity and the Other.: Dare we do Disability Studies? In: L. Ware (Ed.) Critical Readings in Interdisciplinary Disability Studies. (Dis)Assemblages (pp. 181-204). Cham: Springer.