International Keynote Presentations on Inclusive Systems in Education
Dr. Paul Downes, Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre, Associate Professor of Education (Psychology), DCU Institute of Education recently gave two international keynote conference presentations on the area of social inclusion in education. At the international conference “Empowering eTwinning Schools- leading, learning, sharing” for 250 school leaders across Europe, his presentation was entitled, Developing a whole school approach for promoting inclusive systems in and around schools: Some issues for eTwinning? Hosted by the Italian eTwinning National Support Service (NSS), the Conference was organised in collaboration with the European Commission, the eTwinning Central Support Service (CSS), EACEA, and the Italian National Agency Erasmus+/INDIRE at the Centro Congressi Trevi, Rome, from 14 to 16 May.
Cécile Leclerq, from the European Commission and Carmela Palumbo, Head of Department, Italian Ministry of Education opened the conference. Dr. Downes argued for the need to create relational spaces that shift communication and power relations at school system levels, to include the voices and experiences of marginalised students and parents. He distinguished where eTwinning can and cannot play a role in this process, with a particular focus on early school leaving and bullying prevention.
Dr. Downes gave the opening keynote presentation, at the EMPAQT International Conference, "Policies and Practices for the Prevention of Early School Leaving" Maltepe University, Istanbul, May 3-5. This was the first international conference in Turkey, specifically focusing on the theme of early school leaving prevention. His presentation, From Early School Leaving Prevention to Promoting Inclusive Systems of Concentric Spatial Relations of Assumed Connection argued for the need to challenge diametric spatial systems of exclusion, opposition and hierarchy and to develop specific concentric spatial systems of inclusion in education, building on the cross-cultural work of Claude Lévi-Strauss in structural anthropology.