Enabling all children to belong, be engaged and to learn

• Main Authors: Hreinsdóttir, Anna Magnea, Ragnarsdóttir, Hanna
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2019
• Subjects: Preschool; School of Diversity; Learning Environment for Young Children; Special Needs; Leikskóli; skóli margbreytileikans; námsumhverfi ungra barna; sérþarfir; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/netla/article/view/2953

Quality in early childhood education is a prominent concern for policymakers and has recently become a priority for many international and European organisations. Given these international concerns, the European Agency undertook a three-year project (2015–2017) entitled Inclusive Early Childhood Education (IECE). It aimed to identify, analyse and subsequently promote the main characteristics of quality inclusive early childhood education for all children from three years of age to the start of primary education. This provided an opportunity to examine more closely how, within an inclusive perspective, IECE provisions across Europe are addressing the quality principles already identified by the European Commission (2014) and the OECD (2015). There are indications, among other things, that it has generally not been possible to develop activities in preschools in Iceland that suit a diverse group of children and that too much emphasis has been placed on diagnoses as a prerequisite for support for children with special needs. In this project, the aim was to identify, analyse and promote the main quality of inclusive education for young children. The key question asked was: What are the main characteristics in the learning environment for young children in a preschool of diversity? The project builds on the concept of a school of diversity that refers to a diverse culture, behaviour, language and religion, and focuses on the diversity of students and schools, rather than segregating learning, teaching, schools or students. The project was grounded in the relevant research and policy literature, data collected through observations of example IECE settings (altogether nine cases) in eight European countries, descriptions of examples from practitioners across Europe, and questionnaires on national developments in IECE in all European Agency member countries. Sixty-two IECE country experts from across Europe contributed to the project. They participated in data collection and analysis, in observations and discussions ...