This project aims to develop effective strategies for including all children in lessons, particularly those who are hard to reach, such as migrants, refugees and disabled students. It will achieve this through the use of a model of teacher professional development that emerged from the findings of an earlier study funded by the EU. The model combines a well-established approach to professional learning, known as ‘lesson study’, with an emphasis on listening to the views of students, which is a distinctive feature of the model. Most importantly, the model facilitates dialogue between children and teachers in order to develop inclusive responses to diversity. The issue of including all children in schools is a challenge faced by teachers across Europe (Corak, 2004). In addition, though there is research that has involved students in commenting on practical aspects of schooling - such as school uniforms and aspects of the environment – much less research has focused on using their ideas to improve learning and teaching. Furthermore, existing research is mostly set in secondary schools. There is, therefore a need to investigate how far and in what ways the views of younger students can help in the strengthening of classroom practices in primary schools. Recognising these needs and building on our previous research - which only involved secondary schools - the proposed project sets out to fill these gaps. The project objectives are to: 1. Respond to learner diversity in inclusive ways through the active participation of children; 2. Enhance the access, participation and learning performance of all children, ensuring that no child is marginalised; 3. Use a research-based model of teacher professional development that encourages dialogue between children and teachers; 4. Design new techniques for generating the views of younger children, including ways of involving them in carrying out research in their schools; and, 5. Measure the impact of using such approaches on teachers’ thinking and practices, and on students’ engagement (attitudes and behaviours) There will be 10 partners (schools and universities) in 5 countries: Austria, Denmark, England, Portugal and Spain. In each country, a local university will collaborate with one primary school that will take on the role of the ‘hub’. These schools will go on to act as the local facilitator for the initiative, eventually creating a network of six primary schools( a total of 30 schools). Working in close collaboration with the researchers, the hub schools will have a key role in taking the project forward. Students, staff and other key stakeholders will be actively involved in order to ensure that the project is relevant to varied school contexts. In these ways, the project will promote cooperation, peer learning and exchanges of experience at the European level. The project objectives will be addressed using a three-cycle action research process, as follows: Cycle 1. Researchers will work closely with the headteachers and a trio of teachers in each of the hub schools in using the model. Children will also be trained as researchers. Cycle 2. The approach will be used in 5 more schools in each country, whilst at the same time expanded in the hub school, with systematic monitoring of the impact on teachers’ thinking and practices, and students’ engagement. Cycle 3. The approach will be used extensively in the 30 participating schools and disseminated to all schools in each of the cities involved. The intended outcomes are: 1. A Guide 2. A DVD 3. A Manual for Training children as researchers 4. A Pupil Voice Toolkit 5. Case studies (5 in total) 6. A Guidance document for monitoring impact on teachers 7. A Guidance document for monitoring impact on students 8. 5 academic publications that will report the findings internationally. 9. 5 practitioners’ publications that will report the findings internationally. Most importantly, the project will have direct impact on the practices of the participating schools. This will have longer term benefits both for teachers and for students. Teachers that take part will change their future practices and embed the idea of students’ voices and lesson study in their practices. Children’s participation will be increased through the process of the project, especially for those students that are hard to reach, since they will be trained to take the role of researchers. Overall, all students in the 30 participating schools, as well as in other organisations who will adopt the approaches via dissemination plans, will be empowered through such approaches and develop skills that are essential for active citizens, such as expressing their views more freely and having a say in decision-making. This will have longer term impacts in relation to the inclusion of all, but especially for those who are hard to reach. The intention is that all of this will have a much wider impact on policy and practice across the EU.
The issue of including all children in schools is a challenge faced by teachers across Europe. The “Reaching the hard to reach: inclusive responses to diversity through child-teacher dialogue” project was focused on this challenge. It set out to develop effective strategies for including all children in lessons, particularly those who are hard to reach, such as migrants, refugees and disabled students. The project objectives were to: 1. Respond to learner diversity in inclusive ways through the active participation of children; 2. Enhance the access, participation and learning performance of all children, ensuring that no child is marginalised; 3. Use a research-based model of teacher professional development that encourages dialogue between children and teachers; 4. Design new techniques for generating the views of younger children, including ways of involving them in carrying out research in their schools; and, 5. Measure the impact of using such approaches on teachers’ thinking and practices, and on students’ engagement (attitudes and behaviours) These objectives were addressed through the use of an innovative approach, Inclusive Inquiry (Messiou and Ainscow, 2020). This was developed through an earlier EU funded project and further refined to be used in this project. The earlier project involved work in secondary schools, whereas this new project was located in primary schools, a gap identified in relation to student voice work. The project involved partnerships of universities and primary schools in five countries: Austria, Denmark, England, Portugal and Spain. There were ten partners in total: five universities and five primary schools, in each of the participating countries. The project involved three cycles of collaborative action research: Cycle 1. Researchers worked closely with the headteachers and a trio of teachers in each of the five partner ‘hub’ schools in piloting the refined approach of Inclusive Inquiry. Children in the hub schools were trained as researchers. At the end of this cycle, lessons identified were taken into consideration for the second cycle. Cycle 2. Inclusive Inquiry was used in five more schools in each country, whilst at the same time expanded in the hub schools, with systematic monitoring of the impact on teachers’ thinking and practices and students’ engagement. Cycle 3. The approach was used more widely in the 30 participating schools and disseminated to other schools in each of the cities involved. Inclusive Inquiry involves three phases: Plan, Teach and Analyse, carried out by trios of teachers. Each teacher chose three or more students from their class who were seen in some way as being ‘hard to reach’ to became researchers. For example, some were defined as having special educational needs, refugees, children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and others lacked confidence. These students were then trained by their teachers in order to collect their classmates’ views about learning and teaching. The information collected was analysed by the student researchers to inform the co-planning of a lesson. This was then taught in each of the classes. These lessons were observed by the other two teachers and by student researchers from the other two classes. At the end of each lesson, student researchers analysed what happened with their teachers in order to make modifications for the next time the lesson was taught, with a focus on ensuring that all learners are included in the learning process. The need to address the challenge of ensuring implementation of key features was crucial within a project that involved so many participants. This required the specification of the essential features of the strategy that needed to be adopted. With this in mind, implementation was monitored systematically, by teachers and researchers, using a ‘Levels of Use’ instrument devised for this purpose. In this way, it was possible to establish causal links between the process and outcomes. Impact was determined through observations, interviews and questionnaires completed by students and teachers. This provided evidence of direct impact on teachers’ thinking and practices, and on children’s engagement in lessons. There were also indications that project had longer term benefits within the participating schools by changing teachers’ thinking about student diversity. Further research is needed to explore this impact. Informed by this analysis, six booklets in five languages were produced to be used by other schools. In addition, a video was produced that can be used as an introduction and for staff development purposes. Finally, five academic publications and five practitioner publications, jointly written with practitioners, were produced. At the same time, as a result of various dissemination events, the use of the approach has been expanded to other countries, such as the USA, the Netherlands, and in various Latin America countries. In these ways, the project exceeded its original intentions.