About

Reflection as a Tool for Professional Development

The Inclusion Stories project is a multi-national Erasmus+ initiative involving eight organisations from Sweden, Hungary, Finland, Greece, Italy, and Portugal. Our mission is to demonstrate that inclusive education is achievable, even in challenging circumstances, by providing educators with the confidence and practical strategies they need.

By utilising the Most Significant Change (MSC) methodology, we capture the human stories of inclusive practice across six European nations. This "Living Gallery" serves as Reflection as a Tool for Professional Development, leveraging multi-media, voice notes, and expert commentary to bridge the gap between abstract theory and the lived reality of the classroom.

Through interactive mapping and Meta-Reflection, educators are invited to analyse and refine their own practice within a collaborative transnational community.

Helena Wallberg, Project Director

"Our Inclusion Stories from the Classroom will demonstrate that inclusive education is achievable, even in challenging circumstances, and provide teachers with the confidence, skills, and community support to implement effective inclusion strategies."

Our Credo 

The Guiding Principles for Inclusion Stories

 Inclusion is a word and a concept that carries many associations. Sometimes these associations are based on personal experience, and sometimes the understanding of inclusion is a mere theoretical construct with little evidence of how it is actually achieved in real life. We want to bridge the gap between theory and practice by highlighting authentic, lived stories of inclusion.

We honour the UNESCO definition of inclusion:

“Inclusion in education refers to an educational approach that aims to provide equitable learning opportunities for all students, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities. This framework emphasises the importance of accommodating diverse needs within the classroom, fostering an environment where every learner can participate fully. Inclusive education promotes social integration and values the contributions of all individuals in the learning process.”

And the vision expressed by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education:

“All learners of any age are provided with meaningful, high-quality educational opportunities in their local community, alongside their friends and peers.”

Our inclusion stories are about individual students who have disabilities or face circumstances that make them vulnerable. However, our focus is not on disability or individual challenges, but on the changes that need to take place for inclusion to happen.

Inclusion is about making an effort to see the potential in everyone, including staff, parents, and caregivers. Moving the focus from the individual student to a shared learning environment designed with all students in mind provides the shift essential for true inclusion. The primary challenge is not simply understanding individual students. We acknowledge that inclusion is about supporting teachers to take responsibility for all students’ learning simultaneously; therefore, the conversation must start with the teaching, not the student. The moment inclusion becomes a discussion about particular groups of students, it stops being a discussion about inclusion.

Therefore, our work on the inclusion stories we collect is centred on reflection regarding significant changes across different perspectives and levels: from the individual level to teaching strategies, the organisation of the school, and communication between the school and wider stakeholders.

Our reflective processes have helped us create a set of core beliefs that will carry us through the project and beyond:

We believe 

We believe in the power of authentic stories told by those who are at the centre of the experience.

We believe that inclusion is a process.

We believe that sustainable inclusion is rooted in the relational model (link). Having a clear theoretical foundation for our inclusive work is essential, and the relational model serves as that foundation.

We believe in empowerment: teachers, students, and stakeholders both inside and outside of schools can and should be empowered to advance inclusion.

We believe that teaching is about nurturing individuals within a collective environment.

We believe that the true challenge of inclusion is translating individual needs into collective teaching practices. Teachers must be part of this conversation so they can take ownership of universal instruction and assessment.

We believe that reflection and analysis are inclusive ways of learning that strengthen professional mastery.

We believe that reflection must be grounded in a clear model to guide thinking and open up space for constructive, challenging conversations.

Inclusion is about making an effort to see the potential in everyone, including staff, parents, and caregivers. Moving the focus from the individual student to a shared learning environment designed with all students in mind provides the shift essential for true inclusion. The primary challenge is not simply understanding individual students. We acknowledge that inclusion is about supporting teachers to take responsibility for all students’ learning simultaneously; therefore, the conversation must start with the teaching, not the student. The moment inclusion becomes a discussion about particular groups of students, it stops being a discussion about inclusion.