Conference Agenda

Over the past decade, European education policy has increasingly positioned inclusive teacher education as a cornerstone of equitable and resilient school systems (Council, 2018). Rather than treating inclusion as a ‘specialised add-on’ linked to special educational needs only, recent policies frame the ability to teach diverse learners as a universal professional competence. At the level of the EU, the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training 2021–2030 establishes quality, equity and inclusion as central objectives and explicitly links these normative goals to strengthening the education profession through improved initial and continuing teacher education (Council, 2021). This orientation is to be strengthened by thematic recommendations aimed to translate inclusion into concrete pedagogical and organisational expectations. For example, the recommendation ‘Pathways to School Success’ of the European Council promotes whole-school and system-level strategies against exclusion, emphasising support and training for teachers and school staff to work with so-called heterogeneous groups of students (Council of the European Union, 2022). Furthermore, inclusive digital education has been highlighted as key for creating inclusive learning environments, calling for teacher training to enable pedagogues (European Commission, 2021). In parallel, broader equality agendas have strengthened the rights-based foundation of inclusive teacher education.

In line with this broader European policy agenda for inclusive teacher education, many European countries have taken efforts to reform their teacher education systems over the last decade. For example, a central aim of the latest reform in Austria was to support the transition from a segregated special-school oriented system towards more inclusive schooling by trying to ensure that every future teacher acquires basic competences in inclusive education. (Buchner & Proyer, 2020). Portugal’s inclusive education reform, implemented in 2018, repositioned mainstream teachers as responsible for all learners, embedding inclusion across curriculum, assessment and support structures rather than in separate special education tracks. This reform also included education opportunities for teachers, intended to deepen their understanding of the policy framework, core principles of inclusive education and Universal Design for Learning, as well as targeted approaches for particular learner groups, delivered through a combination of structured training programmes and more informal, practice-oriented learning opportunities. However, these efforts have been considered as risking a superficial compliance of teachers instead of the needed deep pedagogical transformation and sustained collaborative, reflective inclusive practices (Alves, 2020). Already these few examples seem to support the thesis that across Europe, teacher education reforms for inclusion share a common rhetoric but differ in structures, content and level of implementation. Some systems add isolated inclusion modules, while fewer redesign entire curricula around inclusive pedagogy (Florian & Camedda, 2020), such as in the case of Luxembourg in 2024.

Despite recent implementation, these reforms have been challenged in education policy discourses across Europe. The urge to return to more conservative approaches, such as a segregated professionalization for special education is being used by right-wing conservative parties – countering efforts to build an inclusive teacher education.

Our panel seeks to provide an overview of reforms having taken place since 2015 and challenges opportunities associated with the status quo of inclusive teacher education in Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece, Luxemburg, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden. The rather broad sample of countries from different European regions and developmental stages in inclusive education policies, allows for a contrasting comparison (Bray et al., 2014). Each presenter will provide a country case study on the focuses and structures of these reforms, recent education policy discourses as well as challenges and possibilities for inclusive teacher education. With our contribution, we aim to set the base for the first systematic comparison of inclusive teacher education in Europe.