European teachers and inclusive education

This chapter focuses on European teachers and inclusive education. Inclusion is not only about children with disabilities, as many people tend to think: it is about diversity and dealing with each child and his/her uniqueness, strength, and weaknesses. As this chapter shows, inclusion is a human right and therefore the question should not really be whether it will happen, but rather when and how it will happen. Each European teacher should know about inclusion and its current development, but more importantly, young teachers should get practical opportunities to discuss and learn how to deal with diversity in the classroom. In the first section, this chapter discusses the background of inclusive education. It clarifies the difference between integration and inclusion, showing that inclusion is a human right and illustrating inclusion and its different facets by examining different examples. It also addresses inclusive education in relation to teachers, by looking at the notions of fixed ability and transformability. In the second section, the activities used in the HOWBET Summer School are described, such as a discussion about teaching strategies. Finally, the main challenges and opportunities for the present and the future of teacher education are discussed.