TDiverS - Teaching Diverse Learners in School Subjects

This project is funded by the European Commission's Comenius Network Lifelong Learning Programme (EAC/S07/12).

Duration: 2013 – 2015

Since the signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by many European countries, governments have considerably increased their efforts to make their education systems more inclusive, despite contrasting starting points. The right to inclusive education throughout the life course is clearly defined in the UN Convention (§ 24), yet it must be successfully transferred into national, state, and local structures and cultures. All education systems in Europe face the challenge to develop more inclusive schooling. Inclusive education success depends on the practices that teachers use every day to foster learning among diverse learners in their classrooms.

Gathering case studies from the TDiverS countries—Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain, and Sweden—promises to enhance our understanding of barriers and facilitators of such reforms. Among the core values relating to teaching and learning as the basis for inclusive education, two will be emphasized in the cross-national comparisons of good practice: (1) valuing learner diversity (learner difference is considered as a resource and an asset), and (2) supporting all learners (teachers have high expectations for all learners). Examining characteristics such as ability, gender, culture, language, socio-economic background—as well as their intersections—the TDiverS partners (researchers and school teachers in Northern, Central, Eastern and Southern Europe) emphasize the conditions needed to teach diverse learners in these countries, focusing especially on teacher education.
Through video collection, workshops, and conferences, the project partners gather and translate inspiring examples of effective teaching approaches in heterogeneous classrooms in a variety of school subjects from across Europe.

For further information or questions, please contact Michelle Brendel or Justin Powell.