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Press Release by the University of Latvia about the Latvian Advisory Board (29.07.2019)

In the first four months of my HUB project, an Advisory Board has been established and research on inclusive education is ongoing.

On January 31, 2019, researchers from the University of Latvia, together with partners from Belgium, Bulgaria, Austria and Cyprus, have launched the ERASMUS + project “MyHUB – a one-stop-shop on inclusion practices, tools, resources and methods for the pedagogical staff at formal and non-formal educational institutions” (MyHUB) (604454- EPP-1-2018-1-EN EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN), which will develop a digital site that will collect, categorize and systematize materials and good practices on inclusive education issues.

The repository will initially include materials from Latvia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Austria and Cyprus, but is planned to evolve over time into a pan-European materials site to support inclusive education.

The objectives of the project are: to involve representatives of different educational institutions in interdisciplinary further education in the field of inclusive education (formal and non-formal education), using examples of good practice; to improve the skills of teaching staff with special needs in all Member States involved in the project; to improve the use of existing teaching methods by updating examples of successful inclusive education practices and supplementing the arsenal of pedagogical tools with tools, resources and methods tested in international practice.

Target audience of the project in Latvia are preschool, primary and secondary teachers, directors and deputy directors of educational institutions, organizers of further education; social workers and youth professionals; representatives of non-governmental organizations; education policy makers – heads of education authorities and their staff, inclusive education policy makers from municipalities and state level institutions, representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, etc.

It is the responsibility of each partner involved in the project to set up an advisory board made up of school leaders, teachers and teaching staff at all levels of education, as well as NGOs, non-governmental organizations representing people with disabilities and policy makers at regional and national level. In May 2019, the following advisory board was established at the UL, the members of which are to review and evaluate the progress and results of the project once every 6 months, as well as to advise the research team on possible improvements.

During the first months of the project, work has been actively pursued both to develop a trial version of the digital site and to develop research on inclusive education. There is also a project website where everyone interested can keep up to date with news: https://www.inclusion-hub.eu/?lang=en

The project team from the University of Latvia, together with colleagues from the University of Leipzig in Germany, is currently preparing scientific articles for the reviewers for a collective monograph on the analysis of inclusive education experiences in Latvia and the Land of Saxony, Germany. The articles will provide an insight into the history of inclusive education, analyze contemporary challenges in inclusive education at schools and colleges, investigate teachers’ perceptions of inclusive education in Latvia and Saxony, assess technology use opportunities for inclusive education, and more.

The project will run for 36 months and will finish on January 30, 2022.