Webinar (1): Equal right to education - Inclusive schools and the organization of individual support

This is the second event in the webinar series on disability research and practice in the Nordic countries. It focuses on the efforts primarily within ordinary and specialized schools to secure children with disabilities equal rights to education. Each country presentation gives account and debate and efforts at inclusion in the country in question.

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The presentations and discussion will explore a variety of themes such as plans for individual learning, experiences of stigma and discrimination, and pedagogy in school and service systems.

Three distinguished scholars present experiences and perspectives from Finland, Iceland, and Norway. A panel comments on and discusses the three presentations. The whole event is scheduled to last 2½ hours including appropriate breaks.

Date and Time

Date: October 13, 2022
Time: 1.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. (CEST – that is, Copenhagen and Oslo time)

Programme

Welcome and introduction by Jakob Trane Ibsen, VIVE

Keynotes speeches: Equal right to education - Inclusive schools and the organization of individual support

Keynote speakers:
Juho Honkasilta, University of Helsinki: “The state of inclusion in the state of inclusion? – The case of Finland”
Edda Óskarsdóttir, University of Iceland: “Inclusive education in Icelandic compulsory education – status and prospect”
Øyvind Snipstad, Inland Norway University: “Inclusive education in Norway: From inclusive policies to marginalising practices”

Panel discussion: Current debates concerning inclusion of people with disabilities in schools

Panelists:
William Korte, SUMH (the Danish Association of Youths with Disabilites)
Hanna Lampi, University of Helsinki
Henrik Lagerberg, Åland Association for People With Disabilities

Closing remarks, thank you and goodbye

Practicalities

The webinar is held in English, and text-translated. Keynote presentations and discussion will be recorded and shared at vive.dk after the event.

Background

At a normative level, there is great similarity among the Nordic countries in terms of the rights for people with disabilities provided in legislation, concerning for example mobility and autonomy. At an institutional level, however, there is a great variety, both between and within the Nordic countries, in how support for people with disability is organized, how service is delivered, and how needs for specialization of skills and services are balanced with needs of normalization and integration of support functions. This variety at the institutional level is a source of ‘Nordic surplus value’ of knowledge and experience that, when shared, can inspire development of practice and policies. For example, the ways in which the countries offer personal assistance differ greatly, and they change over time.

The Nordic Welfare Center is a central hub for attaining a surplus value of knowledge about what these differences entail for citizens, practitioners and policymakers. Therefore, the Nordic Welfare Center sponsors a webinar series on disability research and practice, in the period 2022-2024.

Aims

The aims of the webinar series are:

To facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences concerning disability research and practice, of both national, regional, and municipal levels
To integrate perspectives of users of disability services, practitioners within services for people with disabilities, as well as researchers and policymakers.
To complement existing and long-running Nordic initiatives within as well as outside NWC (such as the Nordic Network on Disability Research) with a particular focus on highly specialised services and service needs

Topics

The webinar series will cover a range of topics: Organization of support systems – who has the responsibility?; inclusive schools and the organization of individual support in schools; service delivery systems – public, private, and non-profit; measures of quality, progress, and user satisfaction; governing and coordinating professionalization and specialization; comparing personal assistance and related support functions.

Format

Each webinar will cover one main topic by two to three keynote speeches by researchers or practitioners, followed by questions and comments from a panel, mainly by practitioners from user organizations, or from local, regional or state-level government functions.
Organizers

The webinar series is organized by a range of organizations, under the auspices of the Nordic Welfare Center, including THL – The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Socialstyrelsen - Sverige, Helsedirektoratet-Norge, Socialstyrelsen-Danmark. The main organizer is VIVE – the National Center for Social Science Research in Denmark.