The BMBF's approval of the requested funding means that INSIDE II can start on June 1, 2021. The second funding phase enables the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) to continue the INSIDE project with its partners Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), Bergische Universität Wuppertal (BUW) and Universität Potsdam (UP) for another four years. INSIDE provides for the first time a comprehensive data and information base for the implementation of school inclusion in lower secondary education. INSIDE II can now also be used to examine participants' transition to upper secondary education, the vocational training system, or another life situation.
"The joy about the opportunity to continue to accompany students and their environment with their personal inclusion-related experiences and perspectives was great throughout the project team," said Monja Schmitt, head of the INSIDE team at LIfBi. INSIDE accompanies around 4,600 students with and without special educational needs, their caregivers as well as school administrators, teachers or school support staff at around 280 schools throughout Germany. Regular surveys and competency tests will be used to collect data that will now, for the first time, enable a longitudinal view of school inclusion and other educational stages in Germany.
In the second funding phase, the researchers will address the following questions, amongst others: How do students who are taught inclusively succeed in their transition to upper secondary education, the vocational training system, or another life situation? What role do their experiences throughout lower secondary school play in this transition?
The first INSIDE II interviews are planned for early summer 2022, and preparations are already taking place.
Background and INSIDE I
By ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Germany has committed itself to an inclusive education system. Accordingly, students with special educational needs are increasingly being taught together with other children at general schools. The INSIDE I project focused on the following questions: In what way is school inclusion implemented in Germany? Under what conditions does inclusion lead to successful individual development of students with special educational needs and what effects does inclusive learning have on fellow students? How are instructional processes designed according to individual learning backgrounds in order to promote the development of children and adolescents with and without special needs at general education schools?
More information about the INSIDE project.