Annual Report 2010, Helsinki

The 2010 ECER conference has been a very stimulating conference for the participants in network 4 ‘Inclusive education’. The attendance was compared to 2009 somewhat lower (about 70 proposals compared to normally about 100 proposals). The 5-yearly ISEC conference in Dublin just a few weeks for the ECER has certainly affected  the number of participants.

The participants expressed their satisfaction about the coherence of papers in the session. The programming has been difficult, but with good result. Quite a number of participants in the network business meeting commented on the ‘isolated’ conference rooms. The main conference building was a few hundred meters away and it was felt that this hindered in switching between networks and in profiting fully from what the conference had to offer.

As in 2009 the participants really liked the opportunity to learn more about special needs education and inclusion in this year’s host country, Finland. This was set up as a special session with specialists from Finland. The impact of this session could have been even better if it had been announced properly in the programme. This is a point of concern for next year.

The subjects for the sessions of network 4 (in total 22) were rather different. Over the years the analyses of policy documents on inclusive education, teacher training, collaboration between professionals, theoretical analyses of  inclusion and diversity and ways of working in inclusive education are more or less standard session titles. Other were on e.g. bullying, transitions, didactics or empowerment.
Most sessions attracted about 20 to 30 persons as audience. Two research workshops, one on teacher training and one on minority students in higher education, had very few participants. The selection of research workshops is an issue for concern next year. There was only one paper presenter not showing up.