1st Includ-ed Conference, November 18th 2009, European Parliament
Education is at the core of European Union development. Depending on what type of education we can provide through our educational systems and schools, we can either promote a more competitive and integrated society –along the lines of the Lisbon Strategy- or, otherwise, a more unequal one. But what are the key elements of those systems, policies, schools and actions that may move towards this ideal? Over the last 30 months, the INCLUD-ED project researchers have gathered evidence observing these connections and will present them at the First INCLUD-ED European Conference.
The main objective of this Conference is to present the successful actions which are overcoming inequalities and promoting social cohesion in education and different social areas (employment, health, housing, political participation). Representatives of organisations that are already carrying out these successuful actions which are based on scientifically grounded research and demonstrate that equity and social integration can be achieved in European public policy, will also take part in this conference.
INCLUD-ED Conference – Brussels, 18th of November 2009.Successful educational actions overcoming exclusion presented at the European Parliament headquarters.
MEPs, representatives from the European Commission - Directorate General for Research, representatives of Member State governments, social actors, researchers and scholars participated, on the 18th of November 2009, in a Conference at the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels.
The objective of this event was is to present and discuss the development of policies that enable successful actions for the benefit of schools and educational actors in Europe. These policies were explored within the INCLUD-ED research project and represent new knowledge for policy evidence.
It was generally accepted that family and community participation in the educational process is having a great impact on student achievement and on coexistence between children and their relatives from diverse cultures. The research undertaken in the INCLUD-ED project found scientific evidence that not all types of family and community participation lead to school success. The most successful type is family education, which includes both education for relatives at the school and family participation in children’s learning at home and inside the schools.
The event was opened by Mr. Peteris Zilgalvis, the Head of Unit in DG. Research, European Commission, and by the main researcher of the INCLUD-ED project, Dr. Ramón Flecha. The Europarlamentarians Simon Bussutil and Oriol Junqueras participated in the round tables, and they stated their firm predisposition to promote policies in the European parliament based on the results of the INCLUD-ED project. The General Secretary for the European Women’s Lobby, Myria Vassiliadou, and Angelos Agalianos, from the Directorate General for Education and Culture in the European Commission also publicly stated their support for the INCLUD-ED project due to the social and political impact which its results are already obtaining, based on the analysis of successful educational actions.
