International

Two German Teams of Educators Visit Canada

German Teachers Visit New Brunswick
Anke Grafe and Anke Stenzel led a group of 6 teachers from Germany who spent two weeks in New Brunswick recently. They came to see how inclusive education works. They visited schools and classrooms, talked to teachers, principals and other schools staff and looked at and reviewed a variety of materials on inclusive education practice. Robin Crain of School District 14 in Woodstock helped coordinate their visit and helped the team access local schools.

German Researchers in Canada
Earlier in the year two researchers from Germany visited three provinces in Canada. Gordon Porter helped them organize their visit to Montreal, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Shown at the right is Dr. Dieter Katzenbach, a professor at the University of Frankfurt, as well a doctoral student Christoph Degen. Diana Carr organized their visit to schools in Montreal, Carla Digiorgio of UPEI was their guide in Prince Edward Island, and Dany Desjardins, Angela AuCoin and Robin Crain and the staff of School District 14 in Woodstock provided the hospitality in New Brunswick. Professor Katzenbach will be reflecting on his visit to Canada at a session at the Conference in Salamanca Spain in October.

First Deaf Engineer in El Salvador

In the photo you see Pablo Duran and his parents, Sylvia and Edgar Duran who live in San Salvador in Central America. Pablo is the first university graduate engineer in El Salvador who is deaf. What has that got to do with inclusive education in Canada you might ask. Well it turns out Pablo’s dad Edgar is a former leader of the parent advocacy movement in that country. Edgar has visited Canada several times since first meeting Canadians at a conference in Managua, Nicaragua in 1993. Edgar has also attended a number of seminars about inclusive education and the benefits of inclusion and parent advocacy for inclusion. He attributes his passion for inclusion for Pablo to what he learned from his Canadian colleagues. What a great thing for Pablo and his family. We are indeed engaged in a struggle for fair play and justice not only in Canada but in neighbouring countries as well.

Report Card Time

Inclusion International and Inclusion Europe are leading an international team organizing a major conference in Salamanca Spain in October 2009. The event will be held in the historic City of Salamanca - and will revisit the progress made toward inclusive education in the 15 years since the UNESCO World Conference on Special Education was held there in 1994.

Educators, policy makers, parents, and others will gather to assess the progress made and the challenges that remain. October 21-23, 2009 in Salamanca. Put it on your calendar.

More detailed information will be available on this and other websites in a few weeks.

For the current Conference flyer - click here.

Inclusion International holds a Global Conference on Inclusive Education

Inclusion International President Diane Richler has announced a conference on inclusive education to be held in Salamanca Spain in October 2009. The Salamanca Statement was adopted at the UNESCO World Conference on Special Education in June 1994. Now 15 years latter it is time to look at the progress made during the last 15 years. Officials, educators, parents and families are invited to attend the conference being held at University of Salamanca, October 21-23, 2009. The Conference title is - Return to Salamanca: Renewing our Vision and the Road Ahead – 1994-2009.

Check for details on the Inclusion International Website.
http://www.inclusion-international.org

Coming soon: UNESCO’s online forum on Inclusive Education

UNESCO is organizing an online discussion forum from 1-30 April 2008 on the theme of "Quality Education to End Exclusion".
Sign up now! The Organization is holding the month-long forum in support of Global Action Week 2008 (21-27 April). Quality and inclusion are key factors in attaining Education for All, UNESCO’s top priority. A session of the “World's Biggest Lesson” with UNESCO’s Director-General; a round table on quality and inclusion and the launch of a DVD related to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are among the events planned at UNESCO headquarters on 23 April during Global Action Week. UNESCO is mobilizing its stakeholders for this annual initiative to remind governments of their promise to achieve Education for All by 2015. Global Action Week is organized by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), a UNESCO partner.

Click here to visit their site.

Inclusion Europe hosts a "Europe in Action 2008" Event in Vienna April 10-12 focused on "Education for All". Two Canadians are Keynote speakers - Diane Richler former Executive Vice President of CACL and current President of Inclusion International, and Gordon L. Porter, a Past President of CACL and currently Director of Inclusive Education with CACL. Check out the program.

Gordon Porter recently spent a few days in Peru. He worked with officials in the Ministry of Education as well as parents. He also made presentations to students and faculty at several Universities in Lima and Trujillo. He was featured in a full page story in Lima's leading newspaper El Comercio. To view the story - click.