4.3 Espaços para pais e envolvimento em atividades educativas

Making good choices regarding school subjects increases the chances of future success for students. This project involves parents and students in the process of making well-considered decisions about school subjects. It provides information on the Flemish education system.

NESET - Network of Experts on Social Aspects of Education and Training publishes reports for policy makers and practitioners interested in promoting equity and inclusion in education and training across the European Union. This paper seeks to examine strategies for establishing community based lifelong learning centres in EU Member States. It explores evidence and research on the benefits and advantages of establishing such centres, as well as the barriers and difficulties impeding both the establishment and effectiveness of such centres. The report concludes that community based lifelong learning centres can simultaneously provide instantiations of a range of key lifelong learning objectives, such as active citizenship, social cohesion/inclusion, personal and social fulfillment, intercultural dialogue, as well as employment pathways.

The ECML?s mission is to encourage excellence and innovation in language teaching and support its member states in the implementation of effective language education policies. It does so by bringing together language experts to develop innovative, research-informed solutions to challenges in language education. Through dialogue and exchange with relevant stakeholders the ECML acts as a pioneering institution and a catalyst for reform in the teaching and learning of languages.

This monograph analyses and describes successful educational actions with a specific focus on vulnerable groups. Concrete data that shows success in school performance is provided, as well as on children, teachers and families accounts of the impact of this success. Alongside, there is an analysis of the relationship between these children?s educational performance with their inclusion or exclusion from different areas of society. This monograph provides actions for success identified through the INCLUD-ED project, thus providing both, contrasted data and solid theoretical background and development. Some examples of these actions are interactive groups, extension of the learning time, homework clubs, tutored libraries, family and community educative participation, family education, or dialogic literary gatherings. All these actions have been defined as successful educational actions, which mean that they lead to both efficiency and equity. Finally, recommendations for policy and practice are included and discussed.

Interactive Groups is one of the Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) identified in the research project INCLUD-ED. INCLUD-ED analysed educational strategies that contribute to overcoming inequalities and promote social cohesion, and those generating social exclusion, particularly focusing on vulnerable and marginalised groups. Interactive Groups are used to improve the education of children and youth in different contexts. They consist of grouping students in a class into small heterogeneous groups, each of them supported by an adult. Each of these groups is organised around four or five students, in a heterogeneous way regarding ability level, gender, culture, language and ethnicity. This example provides an understanding of IG and the results of their practice.

Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLG) is one of the Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) identified in the research project INCLUD-ED. DLG are used to improve education of children and youth in different contexts around the world. DLG is a dialogic reading activity based on two principles: reading a classical literature book (as Romeo and Juliet, the Odyssey, Don Quixote) and then sharing meanings, interpretations and reflections with the dialogic learning methodology. It can involve children and their family members. This example provides an understanding of DLG and the results of their practice.

Joy of Reading is a three-year (2012-2015) national literacy programme led by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and implemented by the University of Oulu Faculty of Humanities (Information Studies) and Faculty of Education.

KAAP is an initiative of De Scholbrug (the 'Schoolbridge'), an NGO based in Antwerp (Belgium-Flanders) which aims to create links between schools, parents and pupils, with a special focus on socially vulnerable families. The KAAP project focuses on providing migrant parents with Dutch language lessons at their children's school.

The involvement of parents with migrant background in school life can be done through provision of language or other courses. In Nordrhein Westfahlen in Germany it is frequent to organise international, intercultural associations of mothers of different nationalities, often in combination with teaching of German. For example, in the town of Hilden, mothers meet once a week in the premises of the elementary school, where childcare and professional facilitation is provided, allowing mothers of different origin to exchange experiences, improve German language skills, hear tips on parenting etc.