WEBINAR OVERVIEW

Title: INCLUSION OR TOLERANCE – a city perspective on inclusive education

Hosting institution: Malmo University, Sweden

Date: December 11, 2019, 11am

FULL ACCESS TO THE RECORDING:

WEBINAR SUMMARY

In this webinar we will discuss how a municipality can support and promote inclusive education, both by professional training of school teachers and by collaboration with other organisations and Higher Education institutions. This will be illustrated by a number of cases from the City of Malmo, the third largest city in Sweden, and from Malmo University. Both the city and the university are characterized by the opportunities and challenges of a very diverse population.

Apart from the main question on how a municipality can promote inclusive education and use diversity to strengthen the pupils in the municipality schools, we will also critically explore if there may be a contradiction between inclusion and tolerance. The starting point will be the Multinclude case Inclusion for real, a professional development scheme for teachers and school leaders. The aim is that all participants shall gain basic knowledge about norms and discrimination in order to strengthen their norm-critical skills, both as managers, employees and colleagues. However, it raises questions around the traditional tolerant pedagogical approach and to what degree that is challenged by a norm-critical perspective.

The MultInclude project is aiming at finding the good of good practices in inclusive education and build a community of practice of committed professionals for school provisions that support students at risk of being or feeling excluded to become committed lifelong learners, finish their secondary education and continue at tertiary level.

WEBINAR HOSTS AND PRESENTERS

HOST: Patricia Staaf, Director of Centre for Teaching and Learning, Malmo University

Patricia Staaf is director of The Centre for Teaching and Learning at Malmo University, which also coordinates the university’s work on widening participation.  Patricia holds a degree of Licentiate of Arts/Swedish, and started working at Malmo University in 1999, as a lecturer in Swedish as a Second language.

Since 2017 Patricia is chair for the national network of Educational Developers; SWEDNET During the period 2011- 2018  she was chair and is now the co-chair for the Swedish network for Widening Participation in Higher Education; INCLUDE.  In 2018 she was co-chair for a Peer Learning Group on Promoting Active Learning in Universities organised by the European University Association.

PRESENTERS: Marika Johansson from Centre for Pedagogical Inspiration and Anna Singhateh from City of Malmö’s Department of Education

Marika Johansson, Process Leader on Norms and Values at Centre for Pedagogical Inspiration, Malmo

Marika Johansson has worked as a teacher in upper secondary school and adult education since 2003. A long held interest in diversity and equity issues led to  a teacher position with a responsibility for the development of didactics for inclusive teaching, inspired by the ideas outlined in Kevin Kumashiro’s anti-oppressive education. Since 2017 she heads the strategic effort for norm critical pedagogy in Malmö city’s school departments together with colleague Elizabeth Flórez, educating school personnel, school leaders, HR staff and others in norm critical pedagogy and inclusive teaching.

Anna Singhateh, Project Leader, Centre for Pedagogical Inspiration, Malmo

Anna Singhateh is a trained primary school teacher but left the schools in 2003 to work with internationalisation at Malmö University. The session at Malmö University lasted for 14 years and Anna served in various roles such as a project manager and Head of International Office. Since 2017 she is working with the City of Malmö’s Department of Education at a unit focusing on research based school development, Pedagogisk inspiration. She coordinates projects on equity in education, professional competence development and collaboration with Malmö University on tracking students through the educational system. This collaboration is called MUVAH (Malmö youths way to employment through higher education) and aims to understand the choices, activities and situations that affect the young Malmö citizens’ paths through the educational system and in life.

CASES IN FOCUS