IInclusive education has become increasingly pivotal in Europe given the exponential rise in immigration. In order to effectively meet the needs of especially refugee children, quality inclusion approaches are essential. Many schools are unprepared for this changing context and many teachers are increasingly overwhelmed by the challenges. As a result, children might drop out of school, or their ability to perform adequately at school might be significantly reduced. This project addresses teachers’ strategies for coping with the challenges of their daily professional life and their general well-being which shape the learning environment and influence learners’ motivation and achievements. The overall aim of this project is to enhance teacher well-being by strengthening teachers´ capacity to manage language and social diversity in schools. The complexity and global feature of issues involved highlight the critical importance of addressing the issues across the educational continuum and through international collaboration. The project involves HEIs and linking schools (primary and secondary) as partners from four countries: Limerick University and Mary Immaculate College in Ireland, Professionshøjskolen UCC in Denmark, the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences in Norway. The HEI partners have contributed to teaching, learning and research in the fields of multilingualism, inclusive education and health promoting schools. The South African HEI project partner in particular, has been involved in addressing these issues through a teacher well-being project in socially disadvantaged schools since 2009. The South African partner will through that project offer invaluable experiences in teacher well-being activities to be adapted to the European context. The aim of the project will be achieved through the development of new coping strategies, tools and methods to deal with – as well as benefit from - the diversity of learners. All project partners will also play an active role in this and in the sharing of promising practices related to teacher well-being and diversity in the partner schools throughout the project. The project’s development of coping strategies that focus on the teacher is the key to a sustainable inclusion of all learners in schools. By receiving the appropriate support from the education system, the teachers will be empowered to provide quality education and support to the learners. The project results will therefore be a significant contribution assisting teachers in dealing meaningfully with the new educational challenges. In turn, teacher students will meet an improved curricula in terms of multilingualism, diversity and teacher well- being strategies, thus ensuring their employability and contributing to reducing high staff turn-over. The project will further foster scholarly collaboration through joint knowledge exchange, publication and dissemination of findings. All materials and resources developed as part of the project will be made available to the partner schools for their continued use and engagement. The developed resources will also be made available on HEIs repositories thereby giving all students and interested parties free and open access to them. Key project members will publish research articles and take part in policy and advocacy debates through joint learning forums and social media. The promising practices and recommendations flowing from this project will thus benefit all stakeholders in education providing useful insights into how to meet the needs of all children. Lessons learned from the project – and in particular from South Africa with regard to teacher well –being interventions in schools – will provide a basis for informed further action by other relevant HEIs, government departments and other stakeholders in education across Europe.
Many schools are unprepared for changing context in terms of managing language and social diversity in the classrooms and many teachers are increasingly overwhelmed by the challenges. As a result, both teachers and children might drop out of school, or their ability to perform adequately at school might be significantly reduced. The overall aim of this Erasmus+ project is therefore to enhance teacher well-being by strengthening teachers' capacity to manage linguistic and social diversity in schools. The EU Commission’s report on how to prepare teachers for diversity states that teachers must be effectively prepared to embrace the benefits of diversity for schools and students (2017). The experiences gained through the activities implemented in TWBD partner schools reveal that in order to embrace diversity, we must also simultanously acknowledge the challenges and complexity of diversity. This way supporting teachers in seeing and making use of the resources of diversity became an effective strategy to reach project objectives: • Develop strategies that promote teacher well-being in schools in order to promote quality education for all children. • Improve and strengthen the understanding of social and lingual diversity and teacher well-being in teacher training curricula. • Foster scholarly collaboration through joint knowledge exchange, publication and dissemination of findings. • Inform policy and advocacy debates through joint learning forums and media. The collaborating partners in the project are higher education institutions (HEIs) and schools in South Africa, Denmark, Ireland and Norway. In these countries, project members have explored teaching, learning and research in the fields of multilingualism, inclusive education and health promoting schools. There are 10 participating organisationa - five HEIs representing departments of Teacher Education and Early Childhood Education, four primary schools and one high school representing communities of professional practice. The departments of Teacher and Early Childhood Education cover a wide range of project relevant research areas. The South African university and school partners did bring much added value to the project in terms of experience and research on a teacher well-being community outreach programme implemented in Schools over the years 2007 - 2012. By focusing on the teacher, this project differ from many educational projects as their focus is on the learner or student. Project main results and activities can be summarised as follows: Capacity building of teachers and teacher educators in multilingualism was achieved through the sharing of innovative pedagoical methods, tools and strategies amongst the project partners. Teachers have been trained in seeing and making use of the resources of multilingual and social/multicultural diversity. Coping strategies focusing on the teachers have been tested and are increasingly involving more teachers. These are key to a sustainable inclusion of all learners in the school. Improvements in collegial cultures and the building of teacher and learner resilience in partner schools: trust needed for professional sharing of practice is enhanced and space for staff reflection and well-being activities has been created. Changes in school environments indicate improvements in terms safety, communication and respect amongst teachers, learners and parents. Added value to the project was also achieved through teachers and teacher educators benefiting professionnally from engaging in communities of professional practice, networks and partnerships at local and international level. Key project members have published articles and presented project results at a large number of conferences globall . Project focus on teacher well-being activities and results have been published in local newspaper, online forums and HEI online newspapers. . Impact of the project on participants and participating organisations directly involved seem high. The project represents both unique and complementary significant contributions to other projects assisting teachers in dealing meaningfully with the new educational challenges. Project results have been shared with other primary and secondary schools in the immediate network of project schools.The concept and methodology of TWB are being utilised in the teacher training of all participating HEIs. Longer term impact of the project is enhanced through future conference presentations, new or revised teaching modules at all project HEIs. Project results and materials, such as the Handbook for novice teachers and Manual for TWB curriculum in primary and secondary schools, are accessible on the Erasmus+ e- platform and the project's website.