Impacting Professional Learning Communities: the legacy footprint of ProuD to Teach All

There are few months until the end date of our project ProuD To Teach All. In these months the partners are engaged on reflecting about the impact of theb ProuD Program in the professional learning communities (PLCs) from Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Latvia, and the UK.

In-field, the ProuD program entailed the development of training modules for school coaches and a set of learning activities for teachers to be implemented in each PLC.

The training for coaches embodied two modules to support the participating coaches in developing inclusive pedagogies, practices, and policies in their communities. The learning activities guided the coaches to start a collaborative learning process in a PLC. In this process, a group of teachers and educational partners gathered to conduct actions towards the improvement of a quality education for all. A set of resources was provided to stimulate them to collaboratively adapt their practices to meet diverse learner needs.

Inclusive policies are seen as a shared responsibility of all school partners, who all have some power for change. Consequently, we hope that our research- and practice-based recommendations will help you to decide on and advocate for your own priorities for change. How can you put these priorities on the agenda of your local school leaders and policy makers, so that the power for inclusive learning can keep growing?

The focal question now is: can the ProuD program be repeated in other school communities and in other countries?

Along with a general evaluation of the program, strengths and suggestions for improvement are being collected through a survey and focus group with critical members of the school communities involved in the ProuD Program, including the school coaches, teachers, principals, parents, and learners.

Our ambition is to share some examples of experiences in these learning processes as testimonies of the building process of PLCs in different parts of Europe. This reflective process about our footprint will be used to enrich our recommendations for the development of future professional development programs for inclusion. 

What about you? What is your legacy for the inclusion at your school? What footprint you would like to leave?

Feel free to share your ideas with the Portuguese team at the Centre for Research and Innovation in Education (inED), School of Education, Porto Polytechnic Institute.