Achieving Access in a Time of Change –ADOLL and Innovative Inclusion

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

ADOLL Conference

Granada, 7 September 2016

Thematic Overview

Crisis, change and context

Looking at Exclusion

Inclusion and creating access

Best practice and language learning

1. Crisis, change and context How wrong can you get? Fukuyama

and the End of History (1992) Sociologies of dislocation The end of certainty: change or

chaos? Narratives of insecurity and change Migration:

departing/arriving/learning European dimensions, global issues

Globalized realities Globalization – accelerating and

pervasive Crisis, meltdown and re-structuring

post 2008 Stratification and inequity increasing Labor market transformation Rights and inclusion – token or real? Access, quality and innovation in

education

Spectres at the gates

Persistence and increase in inequality Permanent hopelessness of excluded Invisibility, ethnic difference and racism Seeking scapegoats and creating

victims Access means many things….

UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report

2030 Agenda: Sustainable Development Goals

Environmental sustainability Values & skills: minority cultures and

diversity Inequality and violence

A transformed world End of expected certainties

No return to ‘normal’

Universal secondary education - by 2084

Planet of Slums (Mike Davis): hypercities of the future

Lifelong learning: only 37% of EU adults attended adult education in 2011

40% of global adults taught in a language they do not understand

2. Looking at Exclusion

Exclusion is much easier to define Tangible evidence of legacy of

discrimination Economic, social, cultural dimensions

– as well as educational Denial of access to resources Unacceptable but often tacit

acceptance in divided or unequal societies

Dimensions of exclusion

Barriers (intentional or otherwise) Attitudes Prejudices Stereotypes Rejection Hostility

Segregated schooling

Centuries of exclusion in learning systems

Outright ban – girls, women and disabled

Separate systems: gender, language, religion, class, ethnic group

Unequal resources and outcomes Fragmentation and

disenfranchisement

Special schools in Ireland Established for the blind and deaf 3 schools each Operated only at primary level Hidden and bleak

And the learner?

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,Into the living sea of waking dreams,Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteemsJohn Clare (1793 – 1864)

The ‘science’ of discrimination

The portraits of hate

Mainstream perspectives

Disruptive classroom behaviors Absenteeism Early school-leaving Teacher burnout Migration, integration and sustainability Literacy, numeracy, basic skills Languages Quality and governanceDG EAC (2008) European Education and Training Systems in the Second Decennium of the Lisbon Strategy, NESSE and ENEE.

So what is exclusion?

A multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which they live.

H. Silver, Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth, Dec. 2007. (Wolfensohn Center for Development, Dubai)

3. Inclusion: Concept or Empowerment

Five key issues:1. Measures to reduce early school leaving2. Priority education measures in relation to disadvantaged pupils and groups3. Inclusive education measures in relation to pupils with special needs4. Safe education measures in relation on the reduction of bullying and harassment5. Teacher support measures.

Attempting definition…kind of…

Social inclusion can be defined as a number of affirmative actions undertaken in order to reverse the social exclusion of individuals or groups in our society

INCLUSO (EU 7th Framework, 2009)

Inclusion 2.0

At the core of inclusion must be ability to assess critically and express freely

Fundamental to inclusion is ability to ask questions that challenge existing relations

Inclusion re-examines existing reality while posing viable alternatives

Trajectories of inclusion Youth and mass unemployment Demographics: ageing and life

expectancy Women and labor market

participation Immigration, cultural and religious

difference Disability Conflict, stress, anomie Urbanization, dissent and democratic

deficits

Inclusion roadmap

Increased application of new knowledge

Open and distance learning technologies facilitating learners and staff competence

Transformation of traditional teaching role to mentoring, guiding and facilitation

Development of network of inclusion best practice at European level

Adopting UDL Inclusion not as destination but

starting point

4. Language best practice – Global Citizenship

Transformational learning Doing learning differently Innovation and inclusion – threat or

opportunity? From curriculum to competence From language learning to

communication

Reality on our doorstep

ICT and re-imagining access Contradictory and paradoxical process Never greater potential - side by side with

increasing disparities of access What we think:

Citizens▪ Shared knowledge▪ Participative engagement

What we have: Consumers▪ Increasing exclusion▪ Significant problems with equitable access

UN Thematic Learning Outcomes Awareness of the wider world and a sense of own role

both as a citizen with rights and responsibilities, and as a member of the global human community.

Valuation of the diversity of cultures and of their languages, arts, religions and philosophies as components the common heritage of humanity.

Commitment to sustainable development and sense of environmental responsibility.

Commitment to social justice and sense of social responsibility.

Willingness to challenge injustice, discrimination, inequality and exclusion at the local/national and global level in order to make the world a more just place.

Empowerment

Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Central to this process are actions which both build individual and collective assets, and improve the efficiency and fairness of the organizational and institutional context which govern the use of these assets.

World Bank 2011

In from the margins: the barbarians have arrived! From oppression to emancipatory learning Insights of the excluded - voices of the

invisible Learning to think – and teach – anew Creating benefit for all Critical thinking Disability and learning: from Louis Braille to

Ken Robinson ADOLL: demonstrates ICT, language learning

and creative application are possible

Setting sail to Ithaka

Removing barriers - mind and heart Avoiding inclusion clichés Facilitating new voices Asserting imagination and creativity Limitless potential of the inclusion

focus Learning as foundation for

transformation From the core of crisis – new

directions of potential

Thank you

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

abruce@ulsystems.com

Associate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO - CHICAGO