Inclusion4Schools

In the EU, around 100 million people live in households at risk of poverty and exclusion today. Even though schools have a significant role in overcoming social inequalities, their role should not be overestimated. The traditional school was a cornerstone of social mobility in the 19th and 20th centuries, but its structures, which are difficult to adapt to the challenges of the new millennium, are increasingly leading to the conservation of social inequalities.

If we think of an adaptive school system, communities must play a greater role in supporting schools especially in underprivileged aeras. Without strengthening solidarity, we will not be able to cope with the challenges of the near future: the foreseeable environmental, economic and social crises may result in the deepening of social inequalities and the erosion of our democratic institutions.

Behind the name Inlcusion4Schools is the idea of social cohesion and integration in a dual sense: supporting inclusive pedagogy within public education and supporting segregated schools to create a more cohesive educational system.

The central objective of Inclusion4Schools is to support segregated schools in underprivileged regions, in the formation of bonds with their immediate social environments. Our aim is to facilitate the emergence of solidary and inclusive school communities. In order to promote and strengthen such a vision of communality we will support and coordinate the cooperation between teachers, students, parents, social workers, municipal workers, civil activists, researchers and policy makers. To create transformative school-community partnerships in marginalized social contexts, we need spaces of dialogue, where the different actors can engage together with the public issue of education. Our goal is to facilitate the emergence of transformative educational practices within these school communities, and to establish an international network among them for the sake of disseminating and sharing transformative knowledge and praxis.

The consortium partners of the project are from Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia, but with our activities we would like to reach out to a worldwide audience, trying to make a difference in education. With our project we intend to contribute to the European initiatives and interventions that aim at reversing inequalities through enhancing the cooperation between local, regional and transnational school communities.