The third edition of the Index for inclusion: developing learning and participation in schools, by Tony Booth and Mel Ainscow, was launched at an international conference today, 23 May. The launch event, held at London University’s Institute of Education, was well attended and attracted an international audience; education practitioners travelled from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Norway in order to take part in this event. Other delegates came from further afield, including India and the USA.
First published in 2000, the Index for inclusion is a practical resource for school self evaluation and improvement. It has been translated into 37 languages and is in use in many countries throughout the world. This new edition, substantially revised and expanded, builds on ten years of the Index in use, supporting educational development.
Inclusion in the Index is a principled approach to developing education and society. It concerns the development of cultures, policies and practices affecting everyone: children and adults; schools, families and communities. The revised Index promotes links between interventions in schools concerning values, rights, sustainability, democracy, citizenship and global citizenship, health promotion and curriculum review.
The revised Index for inclusion calls for the involvement of the whole school community in articulating the school’s values and in developing the school in line with these. It guides schools through a self-evaluation process focusing on creating inclusive cultures, producing inclusive policies and evolving inclusive practices. This new edition makes explicit the values that underpin the Index; has a new section on a curriculum informed by these values and which is relevant to all learners anywhere in the world; makes links with other educational initiatives based on these values more explicit; and clearly articulates how the Index can be used. Spiral bound for easier handling, the revised edition comes with a CD which provides an electronic version of the document and includes questionnaires that can be adapted to the context of individual schools. For more information please see www.csie.org.uk/resources/current.shtml#schoolsindex2011
Staff in primary and secondary schools piloting the third edition commented:
“Thought provoking, incredibly useful, challenging document.”
“A no-badge, non box-ticking, supportive system to help with a range of development activities including school reorganisation.”
“Easy to dip into or read all the way through; it’s your self-evaluation done for you but in a far better way.”
