Collaborative B-learning as a tool to studying and preparing for inclusion in a culturally diverse environment
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abstract
Inclusive education has become the pathway to quality education, as evidenced by the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Most Latin American countries are promoting inclusive education through school reforms and other processes. In 2013, a culturally diverse Latin American country sought the support of an international agency and a regional partner to design and implement a professional development program for local educators to learn about inclusive education. This partnership resulted in the creation of a 360-hour collaborative blended-learning professional development program, which served 1100 educators in two cohorts during 2017 and 2018. Collaborative blended-learning (b-learning), where participants meet to work face to face and also conduct individual and group work online, is a powerful tool to promote educational change at a large scale.
This chapter describes the design and rationale of this program and how innovative concepts, practices, and reflective teaching strategies were implemented within a collaborative b-learning framework to respond to the diverse needs of the participants and school communities. It also presents results on the impact of the program on participants’ attitudes, beliefs and fears toward inclusion, and teaching practices and knowledge to promote learning in inclusive environments.
