Open up Erasmus Project

Project Title

Open up

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Inclusion – equity; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

Context/Background of the project:

The European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education states that: ‘The ultimate vision for inclusive education systems is to ensure that all learners of any age are provided with meaningful, high-quality educational opportunities in their local community, alongside their friends and peers’ (European Agency, 2015, p. 1). This statement includes learners with any kind of disability. In line with the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020, European mainstream schools and youth organisations and their professionals are facing the challenge to include an increasing number of children and teenagers with disabilities. However, for example: educational systems offer only locally bound support to children and teenagers with sensory disorders. Special education teachers exist but many of their peers working in mainstream schools are not sufficiently trained for supporting pupils with sensory disorders, nor ready to facilitate their integration amongst those without disabilities. Similarly, many youth workers acting in the field of non-formal education (e.g. associations) lack of methods to include this target group in activities where they could engage them if their organisations were ready for that.

Main objective:

‘Open up: engaging formal and non-formal education professionals in the inclusion of children and teenagers with sensory disorders’ is a social innovation project that aims at developing the professionals’ capacity to ensure quality inclusive education (incl. formal and non-formal education) for children and teenagers with with visual and hearing impairments.

First, ‘Open up’ refers to the inclusive education policies that flourish all over Europe that consist of ‘opening up’ mainstream schools and youth organisations to children and teenagers with disabilities; including those with sensory disorders. Second, ‘Open up’ refers to the idiom ‘keep your eyes and ears wide open’ conveying the idea that formal and non-formal education professionals (our target group), as well as policy makers, should have greater awareness on the special needs of young blind and partially sighted, and young deaf or hard of hearing youngsters (our end-beneficiairies).

Description of activities:

In total, 240 formal and non-formal education professionals and policy makers from 4 EU Member States (incl. educators: special education teachers, ‘regular’ teachers, trainers, professors, tutors, mentors and coaches; youth workers, educational leaders: school heads, rectors, department heads; and support staff: teaching assistants) will directly participate in the co-development, testing and evaluation of:

– a Guide for Professionals (Intellectual Output 1 – IO1) detailing the profile of ‘resource person’, who has gained a set of knowledge of attitudes that he/she is able to share with his/her colleagues to ensure quality inclusive education for our end-beneficiairies (Specific Objective 1 – SO1)
– a new training device combining face-to-face instructor-led training (IO2) and flexible online learning materials that will be free access on the Open up OER platform (IO3) to Build the capacities of professionals working in mainstream institutions to act as ‘resource persons’ (SO2) and to boost their digital skills (SO3)
– a political and strategic paper (IO4) aiming at providing policy makers in the field of education, mainstream schools – their boards of leaders – and youth organisations with tailored information and recommendations for improving the quality of inclusive education in Europe (SO4) and promoting the transferability of the Open up approach (SO5)

And more than 3000 stakeholders of inclusive education will be indirectly involved, hear about the Open up project and potentially use the Intellectual Outputs described above.

Project methodology:

in order to ensure that the Open up Intellectual Outputs (IOs) are accepted by and useful for formal and non-formal professionals, the project partners will consistently apply a bottom-up approach where 10 stakeholders of inclusive education from of our 5 testbeds (recruited by the project partners) will participate in 8 Multidisciplinary Boards where its members will be able to share their experiences to constantly improve and fine-tune our IOs. The feedback and recommendations received from the IOs Multidisciplinary Boards will be transformed into a unique transnational model adapted to our 4 national contexts and transferable in other contexts.

Expected result and impact:

The Open up project will foster the collaboration between mainstream institutions and medical-social establishments and services that have to adapt themselves to meet the evolution inclusive education policies in Europe. Open up will increase training provision for formal and non-formal education professionals who will engage in blended learning to provide quality education for children and teenagers with sensory disorders in mainstream institutions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 257356,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

La Vie Active & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Asociacion de Personas con Discapacidad Verdiblanca
• HRVATSKI SAVEZ GLUHIH I NAGLUHIH
• INNOVADE LI LTD
• Ouvrir Les Yeux
• Innovation Training Center, S.L.