Social inclusion and inclusive education are key priorities in the Europe 2020 strategy and among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  Despite the formulation of such goals, there is extensive evidence that various types of barriers are preventing young Europeans from being successfully integrating into society. Those successful at school come primarily from high socioeconomic backgrounds (Broer,Bai & Fonseca, 2019; Chung, 2015). This factor influences their success at school in terms of engagement, grades and their performance in upper secondary school (Alexander, Entwisle & Horsey 1997; Benner, Boyle & Sadler, 2016). From this perspective we argue that the educational system reproduces inequalities, and that many of those struggling have experienced a lack of social inclusion. Social inclusion through education is therefore vital to individual and society as a whole.  

This symposium focuses on the project Erasmus+ KAIII “Co-created Education through Social Inclusion” (COSI. Ed).  COSI.ed is an upscale of the proven good practice from the Erasmus+ project; Marginalisation and Co-created Education (MaCE). The COSI.ed project intends to develop a comprehensive model for social inclusion of pupils in the risk zone for social exclusion and dropout, as well as a political strategy that can be used throughout Europe. Central in the project are the four cornerstones: 1) context (background, schooling and cultural/national, 2) Co-creating (egalitarian perspective to learning, acknowledging competence in the expert as well as the learner), 3) indirect approach (how to communicate with children  vulnerable positions to give them voice) (Moshuus & Eide; 2016) and 4) Equality Literacy (what support or hinder learning, for the expert to understand and to empower the learner to)(Stuart.et.al 2019)

The COSI.ed project is conducted in five different countries and educational contexts representing Southern (Portugal and Spain), Eastern (Poland) and Northern Europe (Norway and Denmark). The objective of the project is to prevent and reduce Early School Leaving from Education and training (ELET)and contribute to change of policy. The ambition is to portray an inclusive educational practice for theorists, researchers, educational authorities, and stakeholders to provide theoretical perspectives to practitioners to strengthen their educational work , provide more equal educational opportunities and preventing school dropouts. Following this project we have the Collaborate Competence Groups (CCG) where the pupils, students, politician, professor and teacher meet to analyses, advice and support the project nationally and internationally.

Co- creation in public sector refers to joint working between people or groups who have traditionally been separated into categories of user and producer (Durose, 2017). When young people and other stakeholders’ experiences and tacit knowledge is included in development and implementation of  new practices they are experienced as more useful than practices developed and imposed in a ‘top down’ approach(Shamrowa&Cumings,2017).

COSI.ed builds on the understanding that educational staff, role models and the pupils co-create as part of a community of practice.  Role models collaborate and share knowledge and experience with students to further develop our approach.  By using the embedded methodology pupils learn about themselves, how to excel and the educational staff develop skills and understanding to socially include the pupils.

The collection of studies forms a novel opportunity to discuss strengths and weaknesses of upscaling a co-created model for achieving social inclusion in European countries with diverse contextual characteristics.  The symposium contributes to further knowledge about models for social inclusion by focusing on social disadvantage pupils as well as the various teachers’ good practices. In two  subsequent symposia we will present the COSI.ed project and the overall design in the first paper. Through the next five papers we will present challenges related to implementation of COSI.ed in the  participating countries.

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