Introduction
Inclusive education (IE) as a human right (CRPD, 2006) has been ideologically accepted in most countries for now. Nevertheless, many countries are still making efforts restructuring their education systems to provide high-quality education for all learners in inclusive settings.
Teachers` knowledge and skills play an important role in implementing inclusive classroom practice. But, as the implementation of IE is a very complex and multifaceted process (Mitchell, 2015; Schuelka and Engsig, 2020) there are many factors at different levels of education systems that influence a meaningful implementation of IE. The OECD (2003) works on the principle that educating pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is a matter a whole school, not just individual teachers. Ainscow and Miles (2008) have also pointed out that, in addition to what is happening at the class level, a school culture and the commitment of all school staff members are equally important. Ainscow and Sandill (2010) emphasize that cultural changes in the workplace affect how teachers view their work and students. Additionally, school policy that support school-wide structural changes is equally important (Ainscow, 2020; Hadfield and Ainscow, 2018). Bjørnsrud and Nilsen (2019) have pointed out that collective learning in teams paves the way for joint planning with preparation, a common language, observation in the classroom, and new ideas with actions for pupils’ learning. Moreover, the need for research on how to support and advise schools in developing the organization, in collaboration with researchers and practitioners, has been highlighted (Grima-Farrel et al., 2011). Therefore, in addition to teachers` pre- and in-service training courses, in-service training for school teams could help to address these complex challenges.
We designed a long-term (60 ECTS) in-service training program on IE in the Estonian context, which included a separate course for teachers (24 ECTS), joint courses for teachers and support specialists (26 ECTS), and joint course for school teams, i.e., teachers, support specialists, and school leaders (10 ECTS) (Kivirand et al., 2021). In the current presentation we focus on the joint training course for school teams. The main goal of the school teams training course was to develop the 1) attitudes of all staff across the school and 2) skills and knowledge about the concept and meaning of IE and its effective implementation through inclusive school development strategies. The training course topics were based on the ecosystem model worked out by the European Agency (European Agency for …, 2017): vision and school culture, legislative framework and school policy, learning environment and resources, professionalism of staff, collaboration, and quality assurance (see Kivirand et al., 2021). The general principles of the training course were to link theory to practice and raise schools` capacities to implement IE during the training sessions and designing long-term development activities. We followed the principle that school teams themselves would analyze and plan development activities on IE taking into account the specifics of their school. The training was conducted over a period of 1.5 years.
We explored how the long-term in-service training course for school teams (teachers, support specialists, and school leaders) influenced schools` development activities in the implementation of IE and what factors affected it from the perspective of the school teams.
We looked answers to the following research questions:
1. What development activities for the implementation of IE the schools carried out during the in-service training course?
2. What factors affected the development activities planned and carried out in the implementation of IE?
