A new project to spark ideas and actions for a more inclusive school, by Fondazione Agnelli, GEDI Visual and Google, with University of Bolzano, LUMSA and University of Trento
Today more than ever, we need actions and new ideas for remote didactics that are more inclusive, so they can reach the homes of students with disabilities and special educational needs, and curtail the risk of excluding and isolating the most vulnerable – leaving their families behind with them.
During the Covid-19 emergency, school should continue to offer students with disabilities and special educational needs opportunities not only to learn, but also to feel included and build personal autonomy. But the journey has become even more challenging than it was before.
This emerges clearly from the answers we received from 3,200 learning support and regular teachers, who from across Italy filled out a questionnaire we used in April to ask them about the most critical issues they are facing and what they need to continue with inclusive activities in this phase.
These premises led to OLTRE LE DISTANZE. Idee e azioni per una scuola più inclusiva (literally, “BEYOND DISTANCES. Ideas and actions for a more inclusive school”), a project promoted by Fondazione Agnelli, GEDI Visual and Google, in collaboration with University of Bolzano, University of Trento and LUMSA (Libera Università degli Studi Maria Ss. Assunta in Rome).
Its goal is to promote strategies and actions for the inclusion of students with disabilities and special educational needs, at all school levels, even remotely.
A completely free programme will launch on Thursday 7 May, including 9 Webinars and 45 Workshops – all held online – for support learning and regular teachers working at all school levels.
During the free-participation Webinars, experts in inclusion pedagogy will hold videoconferences about many problematic aspects, adopting a broad approach to explore how efforts for inclusion may adapt and rise to the difficult challenge posed by distance learning during the emergency.
Workshops, instead, will focus on more specific issues often within the context of a certain school level. Participants will be divided into small groups under a coordinator. Every Workshop will offer teachers an opportunity to discuss issues, exchange best practices and share their experience on common problems, in the spirit of collaboration.
Because inclusion is the opposite of distance.
The project was developed under the scientific supervision of Italo Fiorin (LUMSA), Dario Ianes (University of Bolzano) and Paola Venuti (University of Trento).