Policy and inclusion in schools

Governance towards social inclusion and equity

There are several layers to creating an inclusive school setting from a governance perspective. The larger government policies around education and ‘passend onderwijs’ apply to all schools. These goals and financial means shape some of the choices that can be made at the level of the School Alliances (Samenwerkingsverbanden), municipalities and schools. Our main objective is to integrate data-based findings from the schoolyard with the policy goals of inclusive education in general and passend onderwijs specifically. This requires: A) Identification of shortcomings in current policy evaluation criteria of ‘Passend Onderwijs’ specifically and inclusive education more generally; B) Translation of school-specific data on social inclusion in the schoolyard into policy-relevant criteria as well as input for teacher training; C) Linking key stakeholders for interpreting and utilizing the data in the policy realm.

blog on equal opportunities in Dutch education

People involved

Governance - Sarah Giest (Governance, Leiden University), Ellen Starke (School Alliances Amsterdam)

Computer science - Maedeh Nasri, Mitra Baratchi (Leiden University).

Psychology - Carolien Rieffe, Boya Li, David Heijne, Marije Brouwer (Leiden University), Anke Scheeren (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam).

Child Psychiatry - Els Blijd-Hoogewys, Salima Kamp, Floor Stehouwer (INTER-PSY).

Stakeholders organizations - NVA (Dutch National Autism Organisation), AWA (Academic Workplace Autism).

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Key publications

• Rieffe, C., Kamp, S., Pentinga, J., Becker, M., van Klaveren, L., & Blijd-Hoogewys, E. (2021). Sociale inclusie en ASS op middelbare scholen, wat is er nodig? Wetenschappelijk Tijdschrift Autisme, 20(3), 51-59