A series of stakeholder engagement activities have been completed in the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) EUROCH project in Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The TSI project is funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM). It aims to promote equal access and combat regional disparities in implementing inclusive education provisions across the three countries. The Agency is working as a technical provider in the project, alongside DG REFORM and the countries’ education ministries.
Extensive stakeholder participation is essential to gain rich qualitative data about the implementation and effects of inclusive education policy decisions from a range of perspectives. Stakeholder views help to identify strengths in policy and practice, as well as areas where there are gaps in – or between – policy and practice and where challenges in implementing inclusive education policies remain. In total, over 190 people took part in the stakeholder engagement activities, including Ministry representatives from Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as national representatives and regional and local stakeholders from the three participating countries.
The fieldwork was based on six common themes that emerged from an earlier analysis of country priorities and reports:
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Inclusive education mandate: governance, funding and resourcing
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Deepening the knowledge of inclusive education
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Monitoring and evaluation: standards, indicators and guidelines
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Specialists and support in inclusive systems and classrooms
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Teacher education for all
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School-level responses.
Stakeholder activities in this phase of the project included five online and in-person working groups in each country, two peer-learning activities within and between countries at national, regional and local levels, and a study visit to Sweden. Each meeting focused on developing a shared conceptual understanding of one or two common themes, alongside a range of activities related to learning and sharing knowledge and experience in hands-on activities, presentations, visits or in open discussions.
The Agency team will use the findings of the stakeholder activities and country data analysis to produce a set of recommendations and measures to improve the effectiveness of inclusive education in the three countries. These, in turn, will inform the preparation of individual action plans for each project country.
