Conference Agenda

AAchieving a sustainable future requires equipping people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to adapt to an uncertain and complex world without losing sight of their well-being (UN, 2022). Digital technologies are presented as a common good that can support the achievement of SDG 4 - Education 2030 - and build a future beyond 2030 (UNESCO, 2016), which renders the combination of inclusive practices, digitalization and creativity into a key challenge for teachers in different education systems. Various publications have reported on the meaning and significance of policies along these lines (e.g. Eurydice, 2019). Previous research has shown the importance of economic, technological and educational rationalities for reconstructing conservative pedagogy and enabling the "transmission" (e.g. Sancho et al., 2020; Selwyn et al., 2017, 2022). With few exceptions, has reference been made to how policies are realised in practice in disadvantaged schools (e.g. Engel and Coll, 2022; Vigo, 2021). This paper attempts to do this. It aims to generate knowledge on how teachers can engage in their schools to address the challenges of uncertainty when making commitments toward transforming education for sustainability and equipping people with skills, attitudes, and values for their well-being in an uncertain future and complex world (UN, 2023). It addresses what teachers are doing in relation to these policies when they use digital media in schools identified as 'difficult' because of their high percentage of foreign population or their location in remote geographical areas and because of invisible global forces (Mizrav, 2023).
This paper invokes the voices of teachers who are working in segregated schools since they were positioned as ‘difficult’ because of the high percentage of abroad population or its location in remote geographic areas, using critical ethnography to present the experiences of teachers in five schools. According to Apple and Jungk(1990) we consider the relevance of knowing the experiences of teachers in order to reorganise and to actively participate in the reconstruction of these societies. However, according to the same author (2013) or Smyth et al. (2014) we can consider how people can actively participate in the reconstruction of these situations. There has sometimes been a move towards practices that recognise disadvantaged groups in order to create an education that responds to the short and long-term needs of black people that responds to the short- and long-term needs of the population in these schools (i.e. Beach and Vigo, 2020; Feito, 2020). It aims to generate knowledge on how teachers can engage in their schools to address the challenges of uncertainty when making commitments toward transforming education for sustainability and equipping people with skills, attitudes, and values for their well-being in an uncertain future and complex world (UN, 2023)

Sustainable Development Goal 4 highlights inclusion and equity as indicators of quality in education, with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) highlighted as an opportunity to advance educational inclusion (Pedró et al., 2019). While several studies within the field of educational technology have assessed the application of technology in vulnerable groups, students with SEN are still in a position of disadvantage (Cranmer, 2020; Trujillo, 2021). Studies show a need to incorporate a holistic pedagogical model based on Universal Design for Learning, providing accessibility and facilitating inclusion for all (Serrano et al., 2019). The opportunities of ICT in education are evident: the individualisation, the breaking down of barriers of time and space, and the permeability of technology that makes it possible to respond to the principles of UDL. However, it is evident that having ICT tools and technologies does not guarantee that the teachers will effectively use them or change their teaching practices (Pittman & Gaines, 2015). It is rather teacher competencies and beliefs that count (Almerich et al., 2016; Ertmer et al., 2012).

Digitalisation is a global priority, and, in this respect, competence frameworks have been developed from different continents, targeting both citizens at an initial stage and then teachers at all levels of education. In the European context, the DigComp framework in its different versions (Carretero et al., 2016; Vuorikari et al., 2022) has been extended and implemented as a reference model for teacher training in the design of school curricula and updating training plans. Later, the specific digital competence framework for teachers, DigCompEdu (Redecker, 2017), which was taken as a reference by governments for the adaptation of their policies and implementation plans, became the benchmark. Its accessibility has been facilitated by the development and publication of the Selfie for Teachers tool, which provides the educational community with an open and free instrument for the assessment of the perception of teachers' digital competence and is available in 29 languages (Economou, 2023).

The most relevant aspects of this framework focus on the digital competence of students and the practices that teachers and students carry out for the development of teaching-learning processes that respond to the principles of UDL. The DigCompEdu model (Redecker, 2017) presents six competence areas differentiated into: educators’ professional competences, pedagogical competences, and learners’ competences. It is competence 5, learner empowerment, that offers the greatest opportunity for vulnerable learners and students with SEN, as it focuses on personalisation, accessibility, inclusion, and active learner motivation.

In the Digital Education at School Report of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (Eurydice, 2019), digital competence has been described as a priority area for individuals since its initial mention in European Recommendation in 2006 (European Parliament, 2006). A comparison among European countries was made in terms of curricula and approaches. The focus on special needs education related to digital competencies was embedded in the curricula of Belgium, Holland, Germany, Croatia, Austria, and Poland (Eurydice, 2019). A recent report indicates the need for access and participation for inclusion and focuses on teachers’ preparedness for learning environments (European Commission, 2023).

The aim of this study is to assess the use of ICT by teachers working with students with SEN, assess and compare their digital competencies in education, and identify predictors of their digital competency in education across three countries: Türkiye, Ireland, and the Basque Country.

Current global developments, such as migration movements, go hand in hand with increasing social heterogeneity (Mecheril/Rangger 2022). Dealing with heterogeneity in school , in the sense of a broad understanding of inclusion (Löser/Werning 2015), means enabling all pupils to learn the same subject regardless of their different learning needs and backgrounds (Werning 2020). While this heterogeneity is often seen as an opportunity for learning in school cultural development processes (Budde 2015), it also comes with challenges, especially for teachers. They must prepare lessons that are sensitive to heterogeneity, especially in subjects that require complex teaching and learning processes with a high degree of abstraction. This also includes science lessons with experimentation as a core method (Stinken-Rösner et al. 2023).

When experimenting, teachers have to choose between small-step instructions, which have little cognitive activating effect, or open task formats, which can be overwhelming for students (Kleinert et al. 2021). Incremental learning aids offer a central and established solution to this requirement (ibid.): They break down complex tasks into subtasks and provide hints and solutions for each step, which students can access independently. In combination with digital media, such as an app for the tablet, they also offer further possibilities for differentiation.

The use of tablets in the classroom is an internationally researched topic (Aufenanger/Bastian 2017; Zhang/Nouri 2018). Tablets, as well as other digital media, are proving to be significant for the development of teaching and are also seen as a significant opportunity for the success of inclusive teaching (Filk/Schaumburg 2021). The user competences of teachers and students with regard to digital media are diverse and multifaceted (Engel/Jörissen 2022) and the actual use of the media remains largely dependent on the respective individuals (Aufenanger 2017). For science lessons, it has been shown that digital media have the potential to break down barriers (Stinken-Rösner et al. 2023).

This is where our research comes in. We focus the use of an app for inclusive science classes with an ethnographic approach and a special focus on its inclusive and exclusive potential. For this Lesson observations and, interviews with teachers and pupils are carried out. Our research is situated within the joint research project "DiLernProfis" (Short for: Learning process oriented diagnostics and didactis - digital incremental scaffolds as a professionalization concept for adaptive teaching), funded by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research). The goal of “DiLernprofis” is the development of a web app that enables teachers to create and use digital learning aids. These should allow all pupils to complete complex tasks, such as experimentation, independently. In line with a broad understanding of inclusion, the focus is not on a specific group of pupils, but on the entire learning group, which is defined as heterogeneous in terms of its composition. To this end, a teacher training program is carried out and a certified training concept developed on this basis (Löser et al. 2023). The findings of our sub-project are used to further develop the app as well as the teacher training.