CERI Eye: European Training Foundation (ETF) regional seminar on Inclusive Education in Contexts of Social and Cultural Diversity

Tracey Burns reports back from the:

European Training Foundation (ETF) regional seminar on Inclusive Education in Contexts of Social and Cultural Diversity, Pula and Zagreb, 17 - 20 September 2009

The aim of this meeting was to bring together parliamentarians, policy makers, practitioners, and researchers from the Western Balkans area to discuss these issues. This initiative had high level support from the Croatian hosts, with six members of parliament present and the counselor to the Vice President chairing throughout. Other notable Croatian participants included the President for the Committee for Human Rights and Rights of National Minorities, President for the Council of National Minorities and the Presidents of each of the national minority unions in Croatia (the Serbs, Macedonians, Slovakians, Italians, Montenegrins).

The meeting was notable for the open and honest statements about treatment of minorities in the region. The high level political representation and attendance by key players in all Western Balkan states (as well as Turkey and Albania) marks this as an important step in continuing an honest dialogue about social and cultural diversity in this historically troubled region, and could serve as a first step towards making meaningful change to anti-discrimination education policy.

There was a great deal of support and interest for the CERI TED project. The inclusion of the training for teacher educators as a factor in our analysis was highlighted by more than one participant as both a necessary and uniquely useful element in the project.