The inclusive education perspective of UNESCO’s Framework (Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all) has brought significant changes to educational policy and school management and organisation (Diem, Browning and Sampson, 2020). Research on teaching and learning practices in diverse classrooms is as important as ever. This symposium focusses on an implicitly diverse education context- schools with multigrade classrooms.

In an educational context where schools have been organised according to the principles of enterprise organisations, the tendency in educational systems has been to distribute the population from homogeneous criteria in order to work under criteria of homogeneity. Heterogenous classrooms only have been present when the conditions of depopulation of rural areas cannot organize a complete graduate school. In this context a general model of urban school has been shown as the ideal of school and classrooms with children of different ages have had a negative reputation. Research from different countries have shown this negative perspective attending to the teachers' voices (eg. Mulryan-Kyne, 2004).

European classrooms have become more diverse due to migration both within Europe and from non-European countries with this creating potentially new challenges and opportunities for teachers and teacher education. Multigrade classrooms are present in rural and urban areas. Inclusive teaching practices research become central arenas in this scenario for creating deepened understandings of education and inclusion in different countries and for considering local and global discussions. The main aim of this symposium is therefore to help to broaden knowledge and create a space for exchange, reflection and discussion about the status of teaching practices research in these respects in European countries. Connecting this is a challenge for educational research.

Previous studies have already highlighted the relevance of inclusive teaching practices in multigrade classrooms to deal with social justice and inclusion in conditions of European diversity (e.g. Bjøru, 2023, Mangione et al, 2022, Vigo and Soriano, 2014). This research has dealt with the challenges of globalization, migratory movements and inclusion and the implications and needs that these factors demand from future (and past) teacher professionals, teacher education and teacher education research and policy. They ask questions about how schools, universities and other institutions entrusted with teaching practices to respond to the European Union call to inclusive education, so that they can participate in and develop schools that respect different needs, cultures and lives, and contribute to social justice and inclusion aims (EC, 2017) and in line with this the Symposium has a twofold interest:

• To exchange research knowledge about teaching practices from multigrade schools, attending to inclusive education.
• To promote interest for future research about inclusive and creative teaching practices in rural and urban spaces in schools and hyper-diversity in European countries.

The symposium will include researchers from four European countries whose research has addressed initial teacher education in Higher Education. With a critical perspective as a common theme, the papers will cover issues dealing with different processes of inclusion and exclusion related to initial teacher education perspectives. These issues are of great relevance for European educational research, where markets and Inclusion are co-located. The symposium challenges contemporary initial teacher education and the preparation of teachers for working in diverse classrooms.

Bjøru, AM (2023) Multi-grade Teaching in a Small Rural School in Northern Norway in D. Hirshberg, M. Beaton, G. Maxwell, T. Turunen, J. Peltokorpi (Eds), Education, Equity and Inclusion – Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable North,213-229. Springer. Diem, S., Browning, L.G., & Sampson, C. (2020). In/exclusive engagement of school communities through school district decentralization. In S. Winton & G. Parekh (Eds.), Critical perspectives on education policy and schools, families and communities,1-22. Information Age Publishing, Inc European Commission (EC), (2017) Inclusive education: A European pillar of social rights https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/improving-quality/inclusive-education Mangione, G., Parigi, L. & Iommi, T. . (2022). Insegnare nella pluriclasse: La dimensione tecnologica nell’indagine nazionale su pratiche e fabbisogni dei docenti. Journal of Inclusive Methodology and Technology in Learning and Teaching, 2(1). Recuperato da https://inclusiveteaching.it/index.php/inclusiveteaching/article/view/23 Mulryan-Kyne, C. (2004). Teaching and Learning in Multigrade Classrooms: What Teachers Say. The Irish Journal of Education / Iris Eireannach an Oideachais, 35, 5–19. Vigo, BA. & Soriano, JB. (2014) Teaching practices and teachers' perceptions of group creative practices in inclusive rural schools, Ethnography and Education, 9(3), 253-269