BIBESOIN

The project ‘better inspection for better social inclusion' (BIBESOIN) brings inspectorates, quality assurance and evaluation departments from Wales, Estonia, Cyprus, Flanders and Malta and also some stakeholders from Spain and France together. The partners are representatives of different systems in Europe, more or less centralised, belonging to different geographical zones of Europe and with a different cultural and historical background. The stakeholders join the project as ‘critical friends’ to share and confront ideas, practices and methods at a transnational level. Due to the range of contexts of the chosen partners and the chosen activities, the objectives of the project will be approached from different points of view, including that of schools and teachers.

Actions will look at ways of promoting and stimulating social inclusion in mainstream schools through transnational project meetings and training activities for school inspectors, external school evaluators, directors and teacher and inspector educators. The project will look at social inclusion from a range of different lenses. For example: approaches to reducing the impact on educational outcomes of disadvantage such as race, gender, poverty, harrassment; foster the development of social and civic and intercultural competences, media literacy, and critical thinking; tackle discrimination, segregation, racism, bullying and violence, support and assess new approaches to reducing disparities in access to and engagement with digital technologies. The project aims at strengthening the competences and skills of those who play a key role in monitoring the quality of schools and teachers.
The project will include different activities during four 'short-term joint staff training events', three 'transnational project meetings' and a multiplier event: brainstorming, job-shadowing, school visits, seminars, publication of online resources, reinforcement of practices of international collaboration. Priority will be given to ways of improving the impact of stimulation and evaluation to promote 'social inclusion'.
All information will be integrated in the common 'Toolbox for Evaluating and Stimulating Social Inclusion in Education' (TESSIE). The tangible outputs will be the provision of (online) resources for the professional development of inspectors, evaluators, directors and inspector and teacher educators to stimulate social inclusion in mainstream education.
The strategic partnerships also have the ambition to reinforce the interaction between practice, research and policy. It is the aim to create a 'voice' in the European debate for inspectorates and their stakeholders about ‘social inclusion’. This project aims at devising and promoting different ways in which inspectors and evaluators can help promote a more inclusive education system at European level. It is the first time that such reflection is carried out at such high level and at such a scale. Each partner and the ‘critical friends’ will be responsible for the dissemination of the results. They all work with schools and other stakeholders in their region or country and at European level. All partners are well known organizations in their communities and have support from respective Ministries of Education. As program planning takes place, meetings will be organized and open to government representatives, local politicians to invite dialogue and share information. The shared expertise, publications and the toolbox will be a useful contribution to the European commission' s reflection on quality assurance of education in line with the Paris Declaration about inclusion and will be presented at the multiplier event at the end of the project.