1. iDecide: An inclusive decision making tool

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Description

Intro

The project iDecide proposes an innovative toolkit that will target school leaders and staff in order to promote inclusive policies and decisions with the aim of reducing disparities in educational achievement. This is one of the first projects of its kind to use innovative technologies to give voice to the marginalized and all stakeholders in shaping shared and collaborative decision making that can influence school management and leadership. The iDecide toolkit was used in in Cyprus, Ireland, Romania, Greece and Portugal from 2016 until 2018 and was being coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Culture Cyprus.

Objective of the practice

There is a lot of evidence to support the claim that disadvantaged groups tend to have lower educational attainment, lower participation in early childhood education and lower performance in the PISA assessments, while, at the same time, they are more likely to be in special education and more likely to drop out or end up in low status tracks and streams (Field et al., 2007; Machin, 2006; Gale et al, 2010). 
 
This practice proposes an innovative and forward-looking project, with the aim to support policymakers, school leaders and educators on how to develop inclusive policies and practices in their schools by developing and implementing an innovative toolkit and induction course. Policymakers and school leaders often are faced with decisions regarding the development, implementation, evaluation and improvement of policies which directly affect the school experiences and lives of children, but also teachers belonging to disadvantaged groups. Often, in certain contexts, some aspects of decisions do not take into account the voices and experiences of marginalized groups, particularly when these involve controversial issues (e.g. Roma children’s education, mainstreaming education for learners with disabilities, integration of learners from migrant backgrounds etc.). As a result, policies are being developed and implemented that do not serve equally all students and groups. 
 
The project is fully aligned with the target “4.1 – By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes”, as well as “4a – Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all”. Supporting decision making when dealing, among others, with controversial issues which affect disadvantaged groups in each country, is at the core of this practice. By bringing in the voices of marginalised groups and building on democratic techniques and strategies of discussing in depth, debating and becoming aware of arguments supporting the multiple perspectives inherent in each issue, often controversial, will enable policymakers to make decisions regarding policy development and implementation in ways that will lead to the improvement of learning outcomes of all learners regardless of their background. For maximising the success of the practice, the following target groups were actively engaged: more than 2000 policy makers, 1000 inspectors, 2000 teachers, 500 education officials, 1000 school leaders and 200 academics. 
 
During the toolkit and induction course’s implementation, research teams had some challenges to confront, such as the lack of time from the side of school leaders and educators, as well as their hesitation in implementing the toolkit on a daily basis. The challenges were overcome by the provision of weekly assistance to schools, support through the phone and offering guidelines on how to engage all stakeholders actively in the project. Following some months of implementation, school staff could realise the practical benefits of implementing the practice and were perfectly capable of resolving all issues by themselves.

Partners

The key stakeholders of the project were the following: Ministry of Education officials, policy makers, school inspectors, school leaders, teachers, other school staff, parents and students. The most important outcomes that were validated through stakeholders were the Needs Analysis Report, project website with the online platform, Innovative Online toolkit, APP and induction course. All stakeholders were engaged through a primary telephone contact and then face-to-face meetings to demonstrate the project material. In addition, the partnership was multi-professional, including universities, municipalities, NGOs and Ministries of Education, which contributed in the great success of the project.

Implementation of the Project/Activity

During the pilot phase and the implementation of the toolkit, partnerships in each country were engaged among policy makers and school educators. In order to reach its objectives, the iDecide project resorted to the involvement of relevant stakeholders that participated in or were targeted by the following:
1. Piloting the innovative iDecide toolkit. That meant to engage policymakers and school staff in the project activities. The iDecide piloting exercise was conducted in one school in each partner country.
2. Course of induction. That meant to engage policymakers and school staff in the project activities.
3. Translation and localisation of the toolkit, which addressed the needs of teachers, school principals and the policymakers in each country. The translation and localisation of the toolkit provided relevant information on the categories of marginalised students that may be encountered in our schools and, what is more, on the types of decisions that may be made at both classroom and school level in order to act inclusively. This enhances the utility of the material for the purposes of the project. Moreover, the toolkit also contains country-specific information that may be of relevance to various stakeholders.

During the formal implementation of the iDecide toolkit in primary and secondary schools, all the project partners chose a school, which had a number of pupils with special characteristics that endangered them for marginalisation. The chosen schools were multicultural / multilingual / multiethnic, with pupils with special needs (with Special Units housed in some cases) students coming from a low socioeconomic background, including students whose parents are unemployed, many single-parent families, abusive families, neglected pupils, as well as families under the care of Social Services. The practical tips included in the iDecide toolkit were implemented through the iDecide online toolkit and the iDecide APP, in the chosen schools.

The toolkit was implemented for a complete academic year in 5 schools of the participating countries, collecting rich data throughout this period. All project partners were available to meet and resolve any issues that may arose with the schools, such as challenges with using technology and infrastructure. For example, in Cyprus, the project partners provided the school with tablets in order to use the toolkit more effectively. Bi-weekly observations also took place by the research teams, as well as frequent interview, in order to monitor the process and collect rich research data. In addition, partners collaborated and were in constant contact among each other to ensure that all challenges were met and the smooth implementation of the project continued as planned. Another important factor was the excellent collaboration of School Leaders with the project partners, who arranged for frequent teacher meetings and facilitated the project’s implementation and collection of data.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

During this period of time, useful data was acquired from all the participants of the project (eg. school inspectors, policy makers, school leaders, parents, students, educators, and school staff) through the use of questionnaires, observations, focus group discussions, weekly diaries and interviews. Interestingly, all partners referred to the usefulness of the toolkit based on teachers’ level and cases of use. Teachers searched for practical tips for their pupils in order to handle specific situations. For example, in Cyprus, somewhere in the middle of the academic year, one of the pupils was diagnosed with diabetes. Following this, the educational psychologist encouraged the school’s staff to look into the iDecide toolkit for the relevant practical tips in order to deal with that sensitive situation. Based on the research findings, both the teacher and the student felt more comfortable during their everyday life at school after using the tips offered by the toolkit. Other data particularly indicated the relation between reducing disparities in the learning outcomes of learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and using the toolkit. Specifically, all the participating countries suggest that there is an improvement in the learning outcomes of pupils who were in danger of marginalisation when their teachers employed the toolkit’s tips.

All the participants also referred to the use of the forums and polls provided by the iDecide online toolkit. Using a student account, pupils were able to log in the online toolkit and use the functions of the toolkit, such as to comment and vote. These were used to discuss several decisions that were about to be made, as for example where the school trip will take place, ways in which the school may become more inclusive for all children etc. Parents also had the opportunity to use the polls in order to choose themes for parents training opportunities seminars; and also to send a direct message to the Head Teacher through the platform in order to discuss a matter that concerns them. According to the partners’ reports, the majority of students began to communicate collectively with regards to school matters and felt a lot better when being considered for making a decision, while most parents expressed their willingness and satisfaction to share in the school life and voice their opinions.
Furthermore, based on the teachers’ assessment, some pupils were selected as a sample and showed a relative progress in their school performance (both learning and socially). When students were asked, they said that they felt very happy that they could express themselves freely without having to tell their teacher(s) what our opinion was on a matter. Through the focus group discussions, educators felt that the toolkit empowers them and provides them with confidence to support the needs of all students in a fair way, while “it motivated them to move a step further. They train themselves (using the toolkit) and on the other hand, it helped them to prepare actions addressing all children”.

Sustainability and replicability

At trans-national level, partners will engage with their considerable networks of educational authorities, associations, project managers working in the field of leaderships, school management, inclusion, lifelong learning, public and private services and community development.

The key issue that will impact the sustainability of the project is the expected continuing need for innovative approaches to engage stakeholders, students, inspectors, advisors, policy-makers, educational authorities in a culture of lifelong learning, creativity and innovation. By designing, implementing and disseminating of practical training material and by ensuring that access to these resources will be available online beyond the project life-cycle, the partnership will create a new piece of sustainable growth for educational sector addressing a specific and ongoing target group. The developing the project approach will be used and validated in all partner countries, thereby adding to the range of tools available to organisations working in the target group areas and supporting their continued professional development.

Through material that will be freely available online for everyone to use is remaining that the project will continue to inform and train school staff, making use of national and EU networks, funding, and incentives and therefore will continue to support their professional development and improve their skills. In addition policy makers, school leaders and trainers who will participate in the project, as the training staff of these institutions will continue to incorporate the project outputs in their work. In addition, instructional designers, curriculum developers, educational authorities, policy makers, and researchers will improve their capacities and their skills on how to promote teaching controversial issues and strengthen the capability of teachers and school leaders. Having been informed and convinced about the value of the project outputs and training material, they are expected to take further action, design new learning material, develop or revise curricula, provide guidance to schools, and implement policies that will pay attention to the value and power of training on controversial issues.

In addition, there is a plan of adopting this practice in other educational contexts as well. For this reason, the Cypriot partners are currently involved in several discussions with Ministry of Educational officials and high level policy makers, who are interested in undertaking seminars about the use of the iDecide toolkit and are extremely willing in disseminating it to all schools across the country. The consortium believes that this is the beginning of exploiting the iDecide toolkit after the formal completion of the project.

Conclusions

In general, the consensus was that “…it (the toolkit) constitutes an advantage for our school. All members of the school are actively involved in using the platform… Pupils from the 6th grade and also younger pupils share their opinions on specific topics… this makes them feel engaged, valued and they participate more in everything”. In addition, a point that was repeated a lot was that the toolkit was a point of reference before the teachers make the referrals to the Education Psychology Service and this is something that helps the educational system as a whole in order to save time and make informed and research-based decisions, which will affect all students positively and provide them with equal learning opportunities. 
 
What is more, through the use of the iDecide toolkit, teachers can understand more the concept of inclusion and how to actually work towards equitable education that leads to relevant and effective learning outcomes. As stated, “…this (the toolkit) is something we lack as a Service (Educational Psychology Service)… it has been years that we have been trying to convince educators to understand this importance (of inclusion) …”. However, there was also the view that “…I don’t think that using one single tool, an educator can achieve inclusion… if the educator himself/herself… is not properly educated and has the attitude towards accepting diversity, the tool by itself cannot offer a great help…”. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that the toolkit can offer great help in engaging all stakeholders towards building and upgrading education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all. However, teacher training should also take place in order to take a step further towards creating inclusive schools for all and not use the toolkit as a panacea for all cases. 
 
All in all, the iDecide toolkit alone does not change the attitude / behaviour of educators, however it is able to provide general guidelines for the educators to implement actions, aiming at including all pupils in the learning process / school. As a policy maker said: “…[If] you have the tendency and the will to try as an educator to practice inclusive education… then it (the toolkit) can give you ideas about things you have not thought of…”

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