Inclusion constitutes both a guiding principle and a practical approach dedicated to ensuring the participation in education for all individuals, irrespective of their backgrounds or individual characteristics (e.g., culture, religion, gender, ability, SES; Grace & Gravestock, 2008; Göransson & Nilholm, 2014). This as a goal involves active cultivation of an environment that not only embraces but also celebrates diversity, fostering a sense of belonging and equal opportunities for all. Inclusion involves valuing and facilitating the full participation and belonging of everyone in all aspects of the school communities (Cologon, 2019). These kinds of school communities respect their members and provide a safe learning environment for everyone, including the adults working in the school. Further, in these communities everyone can learn and is allowed to express their opinions, raise awareness, and develop their skills. 

In a school community, there are not only shared tasks, there are also common goods. When teachers and students are together engaged in an educational community, they can see themselves as members of a collective in a pursuit of educational goods (Westheimer, 2008; Bielaczyc, & Collins, 2013). These goods define the nature of education, and may help to build the identity of the members of the school community. To develop inclusive school communities, teachers and school leaders should persevere with the continuing professional development in order to be able to respond to the needs of all learners (Marin, 2014); their beliefs and practices have to meet the needs of diverse learners in an inclusive school culture. In addition, school communities that value and respect their members and provide a safe learning environment are more likely to be inclusive (Bielaczyc & Collins, 2013).

All the above lays the grounds for an initiative carried out through an Erasmus+ project: Co-Creating Inclusive School Communities (2021-2024). The primary objective of the project is to provide support to educational institutions in fortifying inclusive school communities characterised by the warm reception, respect, valuation, and empowerment of every participant, thereby fostering an environment that embraces and celebrates diversity across cultural, religious, gender, ability, and socio-economic spectrums. Several schools in Europe struggle with establishing equitable opportunities for all learners (Ainscow, et al., 2013).  Addressing this issue necessitates the cultivation of an inclusive community where each stakeholder (including teachers, students, parents, school leaders) actively participates and feels responsible for the development of inclusive school cultures, while also receiving support in both individual and collective learning processes. The nexus between the learning environment and social milieu is paramount within such inclusive school communities. Specifically, this project concentrates on the social environment. Through the establishment of inclusive school communities, educational institutions can enhance engagement with internal and external stakeholders, thereby increasing the likelihood of achieving sustainable advancements toward optimal and egalitarian opportunities for all learners.

To support schools in their development towards inclusive school communities the project has developed a Toolbox that helps schools to evaluate their inclusiveness and develop their practices. Through the use of the toolbox, schools are guided to address four fundamental questions: What are the characteristics of inclusive school communities; What are inspiring examples of inclusive school communities? What does it look like in practice?; How inclusive is our school community?; What can we do to strengthen the inclusiveness of our school community? The project has delivered a comprehensive Toolbox consisting of different elements. The first element is a Conceptual Tool (two conceptual frameworks) whose aim is to outline and discuss the various ways of defining inclusiveness as a key factor of school communities. This tool translates academic insights into conceptualisations that are more approachable for teachers and principals. Further, the Conceptual Tool discusses inclusive school communities from the perspective of a change process and the main phases related to it. The second element is an Inspirational Tool consisting of vignettes capturing a variety of features related to inclusive school communities. The vignettes focus on engagement of all school community members (students, teachers, parents) and collaboration between teachers. The vignettes cover empowering stories regarding the process of inclusion and on how to deal with questions around belonging and social inclusion. The third element is the Analytical Tool aimed at helping professionals working in schools to evaluate the degree of inclusiveness of their school community and identify needs for development. The tool is based on the concept of inclusive school communities and the means for school development described in the conceptual framework. The analytical tool has been built on the idea of schools as learning communities where collaborative learning processes foster change towards inclusiveness. The tool provides means for evaluating and reflecting key elements of inclusive school communities. Through the evaluation the tool can help teachers and leaders to identify areas for improvement and find next steps The fourth element consists of creating a Guide to implement the above-mentioned pieces of the toolbox. All the parts of the toolbox presented above have developed by project members from 7 countries (Canada, Estonia, Finland, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland) and further analysed and revised during co-creation sessions with pilot schools. All tools are tested for practicality and revised in an iterative process.

The aim with the Toolbox is to strengthen awareness, foster deeper understanding, and create a common conceptual basis for schools to work with. Trying to respond to the needs of the teachers a variety of means (tools) were produced to spread the information regarding a school community based on the principle of inclusion: conceptual frameworks, videos and inspirational examples (vignettes) for teachers and school leaders as examples of what an inclusive school community can look like and how it may function. Moreover, the analytical tool provides means for evaluating and reflecting key elements of inclusive school communities. The analytical tool will help schools to identify areas for improvement and possible next steps for developing towards practices that are (more) inclusive. Taking into consideration that the project is ongoing, the project’s partners now focus on an overall review and assessment of the relevancy and effectiveness of the toolbox accompanied by an overall user guide. All the different tools will be reviewed and assessed, so schools will find guidance and clarity in the manual on how the different tools together can support implementation and development of inclusive school communities by providing feedback, inspiration and ideas for the next steps.

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