Scotland and Norway have much in common both today and down through the centuries. Though Norway is four times larger by landmass, both populations today are around 5 million. Norway is held up as an example for Scotland to emulate in Education, in upland land use – as SW Norway and the Scottish Highlands have much in common, and as Scotland continues to contemplate independence. Ownership of the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland, have over the centuries belonged to either Norway or Scotland and the Western seaboard of Scotland right down to the Firth of Clyde near Glasgow have many Norse place names reminiscent of the era of the Lordship of the Isles and Viking activity. Even many of our Scottish Clan surnames are Norse in origin.

Over more recent years, Scotland and Norway have both become increasingly multicultural. In Norway – the immigrant population rose from1.5% of the total population in 1970 to 14.7% in 2020. (Statistics Norway 2020).  Today in Scotland 7% of the population are non-UK nationals. Our schools, in both countries, are indeed becoming increasingly diverse in population, language, religion and culture. In both Scotland and Norway, by far the largest group of immigrants in 2022 are from Poland, followed by Lithuania, Sweden, Ukraine, Syria and Somalia in Norway and the Republic of Ireland, Ukraine, Italy, Nigeria and India in the case of Scotland.

Those coming from EU/EEA countries have perhaps a greater shared cultural understanding and many immigrants have lived in Norway or Scotland for years and have therefore acquired the local language.

In both countries there is also a presumption to educate all children in an inclusive mainstream school setting rather than educate some children in Special Needs Schools.  This often leads to a much greater range of children in the mainstream school, from both the home and immigrant population, who are neurodivergent or have more particular physical or behavioural needs requiring additional attention, and understanding, from the teaching and any support staff in the one classroom.

Today’s classroom teachers need to be well versed in inclusive classroom practice to accommodate the needs and aspirations of all the children in the classroom. Inclusion itself is a problematic term, especially when consideration is given to inclusive pedagogy, inclusive education and inclusive practice. (Florian 2011) In Scotland GIRFEC (Getting it right for every child), a Scottish Government National Guidance Model aims to support teachers as they work to support children and young people. Two of the values in this model are:

• Valuing difference and ensuring everyone is treated fairly.
• Considering and addressing inequalities.

In the current Norwegian National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and Training’ (Ministry of Education and Research (2017), inclusion has had to broaden out from being about inclusion in a classroom setting, to consider the Sámi people as indigenous people. Within the Core Values section is added, ’respect for and solidarity with the diversity of Sámi culture’.

This paper will consider how inclusive practice in two curricular areas not only aids particular children, with additional support needs, but benefits all of the pupils. The two main areas of consideration are:

1. EAL learners in the music classroom in Scotland
2. Challenges for pupils with Dyslexia accessing EAL in Norway

In the Scottish situation EAL learners are acquiring English as the lingua franca of the country and the language of learning in the school. In the Norwegian situation EAL learners are learning English as an additional second language but it is not the general language of learning in the school.

The paper will consider the value of diversity through the prism of EAL learners in the classroom and how, in working to accommodate either EAL learners in a music environment or challenges for Dyslexic pupils learning EAL, that all the children in the classroom can benefit from the mitigations made to accommodate their needs. In this paper diversity can been witnessed in the form of the authors. Clare Fodey, from Scotland, has taught in the primary school sector and university for many years and is nearer the end of her teaching career. Malin Zettervall, from Norway, has been teaching in the secondary education sector for the past few years and is in the early stages of her teaching career. The research method used will be by research of academic literature. Literature from academics living and working in Scotland or Norway and published mainly in the last 10 years. This will be a joint venture between the paper’s authors allowing for sharing of ideas and understanding. The paper will make particular use of academic writing by Norwegian authors such as Jorun Buli-Holmberg, Torill Rønsen Ekeberg, Torill Moen, Trond Lekang, Halvor Bjørnsrud who all write on inclusion and inclusive practice; and Scottish academics from the Scottish Universities Inclusion Group who work to develop and disseminate the National Framework for Inclusion for teachers in Scottish schools such as Lani Florian, Ines Alves, Margaret McCulloch and Angela Jaap, Jenny Pratt. In the first area: EAL learners in the music classroom in Scotland, the paper will consider research into the ways children of Asylum seekers, Refugees and Migrant workers in Scotland with no, or very little, English, were able to access the music curriculum. This will be looking at the use of Communication Friendly School inclusion strategies including signing, BSL (British sign language) and Makaton. The second area: Challenges for pupils with Dyslexia accessing EAL in Norway. Here, the research will consider what additional complications arise for children with dyslexia accessing English language in and beyond the classroom setting and what strategies can be used to aid their learning. In this area reference will be made to a range of Norwegian academics listed above.

It is envisioned that, due to the connections between Scotland and Norway, that there will no doubt be much in common among the academic literature of the two countries. However, as Norway moves from inclusive education to adapted education with talk of universal education, it will be interesting to discover parallels and differences with inclusive practice in Scotland. With the implications of adding the rights of the indigenous Sami people and their culture into Norwegian education’s core values

Florian, L. and Black-Hawkins, K. (2011). Exploring inclusive pedagogy. British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), pp.813-828. https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1080/01411926.2010.501096 (Accessed 31/1/2023) Florian, L. and Linklater, H. (2010). Preparing teachers for inclusive education: using inclusive pedagogy to enhance teaching and learning for all. Cambridge Journal of Education, 40(4), pp.369-386. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0305764X.2010.526588 GIRFEC (2022) Getting it right for every child. https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/ (Accessed 31/1/2023) Somby, H.M & Olsen,T.A (2022) Inclusion as indigenisation? Sámi perspectives in teacher education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, DOI: Statistics Norway (2020) https://www.ssb.no/innvbef Statistica (Scotland 2021) - https://www.statista.com/statistics/759799/non-british-population-in-scotland-by-nationality/#:~:text=There%20were%20approximately%2062%20thousand,Irish%20nationals%2C%20at%2021%20thousand. Statistics Norway 2022 https://www.ssb.no/en/statbank/table/09817/