The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education worldwide, temporary school closures exacerbated pre-existing educational inequalities (World Bank, 2021). According to UNESCO (2020) around one billion children around the world have been affected by school closures.

Teachers had to adapt quickly to new pedagogical concepts and models of teaching for which they either had not been trained or did not have sufficient guidance or resources. The OECD (2020) states, that the effectiveness of online learning might have been hindered due to a lack of basic digital skills among teachers and students. Even across the same school quality differences in online teaching were noticeable (OECD, 2020), highlighting that the effectiveness of digital technologies for instruction and learning purposes depends on teachers' digital skills and on whether the technology is incorporated effectively into the pedagogical practices (OECD, 2010).

This is unsurprising since digitalization of education was progressing slowly up to that point. According to the OECDs’ (2020) study “Effective Policies, Successful Schools”, based on the results of the 2018 PISA survey, education systems across OECD countries were not ready for digital education and its potential even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Although, on average, schools performed well in terms of technical equipment, the lack of didactic concepts and specific measures that would support a digital transformation process were lacking.

This lack resulted in unplanned and sudden distance learning initiatives, leaving some learners without access to quality education (EASPD, 2020). Specifically, the exclusion of students with disabilities exacerbated, showing that they are least likely to benefit from distance learning (UN, 2020). After more than two years of disrupted education, it is, however, time to discuss some lessons learned, that is, to improve the impact of digital technologies use in inclusive schools, to prevent exclusion and to promote inclusion. To achieve that, school leaders and teachers in inclusive schools (mainstream schools educating students with disabilities) need to  identify school-specific needs for a digital transformation towards digital inclusive schools (Kim, Yi, & Hong, 2021).

Within an Erasmus+ funded project, five compulsory inclusive schools (either at primary or secondary level) in four countries (Austria, Italy, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina) did just that. School leaders, teachers, and students participated in a study and were asked to self-reflect the usage of digital technologies and about inclusive practices in their schools. The goal is to gain initial insights on how inclusive schools in the four countries perceive their digital potential and inclusive practices.

For this purpose, the SELFIE tool, an online self-reflection tool for schools developed by the European Commission was used. It is designed to help schools assess where they stand regarding digital technologies use in eight areas, which measure the digital capacity of schools and are based on the European Framework for Digitally Competent Educational Organisations (Kampylis, Punie, & Devine, 2015). The authors of the tool state that it aims to promote an evidence-based debate within schools about using digital technologies for teaching and learning. It is expected that the debate will lead to concrete actions, such as the development of an action plan “oriented towards a more efficient integration of digital technologies for teaching and learning considering the school’s needs and context” (Costa, Castano-Munoz, & Kampylis, 2021, 3). Every school can adapt the SELFIE tool questionnaire and even add new questions so that SELFIE suits its needs. This is particularly relevant for inclusive schools, since in that case both aspects of digital and inclusive education can be reflected on.

The study, carried out by an international research team, was conducted in the four countries between September 2021 and January 2022, and addressed the following research questions: 1. How are digital technologies within the eight SELFIE areas used in inclusive schools in the four project countries? 2. What inclusive practices are reported in the inclusive schools in the four project countries? The sample consisted of 20 compulsory schools (five per country). In total 72 school leaders, 719 teachers, and 4337 students from 17 primary and 13 secondary school levels participated in the study. The used tool exists in slightly different versions for different school levels. At each school level, SELFIE includes three questionnaires, which are filled out by school leaders, teachers, and students. It comprises a set of 34 core items, grouped in eight areas—Leadership; Collaboration and Networking; Infrastructure and equipment; Continuing professional development; Pedagogy: Supports and Resources; Pedagogy: Implementation in the classroom; Assessment practices; Student digital competence—which are the same for every school level. The items are presented as short statements allowing agreement or disagreement on a five-point Likert scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Based on this input, the tool generates a report – a snapshot (i.e., a “SELFIE”) of the school’s strengths and weaknesses regarding technology use. Schools can also choose a set of optional items and up to eight own items can be added to better suit schools’ needs and context (Costa et al., 2021). In this study, eight items from the scale “Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practice” (Sharma et al., 2012) were included in the survey, allowing the participants to evaluate existing inclusive practices at their school. Hence, the schools received in the end a report about their digital potential and inclusive practices. The SELFIE tool was chosen for several reasons. First, it is available in 32 languages (including the languages needed for this study), second it can be used by schools with high or low level of digitalization, since the level varies between but also in the project countries, and third its psychometric characteristics. The internal consistency of the items is high (α= .97) (Costa et al., 2021). A limitation of this tool is, however, that it does not generate aggregated data for the report and hence, only allows descriptive analysis of the items in question. The data were therefore analyzed descriptively for each school and country separately.

The main objective of this international research project is to gain insight into inclusive schools’ digital potential and inclusive practices in four European countries. Therefore, we asked how digital technologies are used in inclusive schools, with a specific focus on remote teaching and learning, related to students learning needs, and the challenges teachers and students are facing. The collected data provides insight into the digital potential of and inclusive practices in inclusive schools. The focus on inclusive schools is important, since students with disabilities were least likely to benefit from online instructional environment, leading to their exclusion. To enable digital transformation of these schools not only the opinions of school leaders and teachers, but also of students themselves were gathered within this study. These multiple perspectives allow a holistic view of how digital technologies are used in relevant areas and indicators, measuring the digital capacity of each inclusive school that participated within the study. The results show to what extent digital technologies are used for teaching and learning, in which areas digital technologies are mostly used, and factors that either enhance or hinder the use of digital technologies in inclusive schools. Based on the added items regarding inclusive practices, the results also show which inclusive practices were reported in the different schools, and how the evaluation of the different inclusive practices by the participants differs between them, enabling a debate about the priorities of development, which might then lead to concrete action plan.

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