TESSIE – a Toolbox for Evaluating and Stimulating Social Inclusion and Equity in mainstream education

President of SICI’s foreword

The problem of how to best achieve equity and secure strong outcomes for learners who are vulnerable to disadvantage is one that occupies the attention of education systems across the world. The Better Inspection for Better Social Inclusion “BIBESOIN” project has allowed inspectorates and education professionals from a diverse range of European organisations to gain experience and knowledge of the education and inspection practices of each other, focusing sharply on how inspectorates stimulate social inclusion and equity in education.

BIBESOIN has provided a beneficial opportunity for partners to learn from each other and to take part in and contribute to the international debate on inclusion, inspection and evaluation in an environment that is free from domestic or political pressures. The activity has supported the professional development of the partners involved and contributed to the enhancement of inspection and leadership practices in their home jurisdictions. It is hoped that the work of the project will contribute successfully to improvements in wellbeing and educational outcomes for learners who are vulnerable to disadvantage.

As President of the Standing International Conference of Inspectorates, I have been grateful for the support of the Erasmus + programme, which has made this project and its outcomes achievable and a valuable engagement for all those involved. We are committed to evaluating the framework and evolving it and the TESSIE Toolkit further.

Signed Tommy Lagergren, SICI President

 

The project partners and how “BIBESOIN” led to “TESSIE”

The project partners consist of five education inspectorates representing a broad range of contexts across Europe (Cyprus, Estonia, Flanders, Malta and Wales), the The Institut des Hautes Études de l’Éducation et de la Formation (IH2EF) of France, which is the central provider of training and professional development courses for leaders in education and is led by the Standing International Conference of Inspectorates (SICI) representing the interests of its 34 member inspectorates. It has been supported by contributions from Instituto de Secundaria Monastil, a secondary school situated in Elda in Spain, as critical friend.

Together the partners have developed the Toolkit for Evaluating and Stimulating Social Inclusion and Equity (TESSIE). The Toolkit is both a framework developed by the project partners, as well as a collection of the national and regional inspection tools and evaluation approaches of the project partners. It is intended to support the dialogue between European education partners (inspectorates, training services for schools, school leaders, teachers and learning support assistants) in the pursuit of quality and equity in mainstream educational settings.

The framework draws upon a wide range of research and literature and has been informed by the inspection frameworks of participating partners. In developing the framework, the project partners took part in a series of professional development activities to learn about and critically reflect on each partner’s national systems and processes for evaluating provision for learners who are vulnerable to disadvantage; and to test aspects of the framework. The partners consulted with learners, school staff and leaders as well as organisations engaged in addressing disadvantage amongst young people. The project was funded by an Erasmus plus grant as part of the Key Action II call and is the first of its kind within this context.