Talent Tales for Inclusion - Sharing inclusive practice in art education and talent management with special attention to students with autism spectrum decease and learning difficulties

It is very difficult to create an inclusive school environment in practice, especially in schools, which are struggling with teacher shortages. Teachers are extremely busy; they have no time to develop unusual forms of education and projects. It is also difficult in many cases to shake them out of the many years of routine and the usual methodology, even they have difficulties with SEN children in traditional classroom education. We were applying for this project to develop and pass on to our fellow teachers specific, tested, easy-to-use, effective teaching methods, ideas and experiences. We have chosen art and culture projects, workshops and lessons, because art gives free space for creativity, nothing is good or bad, so children with special needs can participate as equal members of the class/group without struggling with difficulties or exclusion. We believe that creativity, freedom and self-expression help children to be more confident, happier and accepting. We hope that such an environment will also facilitate inclusion.

The main goal of the project was for the participating organisations to inspire each other, get to know each-others practice and share their experiences in the following areas: art education, school cultural and artistic projects involving extern artists, facilitating school inclusion. Important objective was to gain international project experience, working together with colleagues from other cultures. The project was also meant to be a preparation for a larger, multi-partner project to develop a complete tool-box with methodology, curricula, ideas etc. in this topic. While working together, we had to collect ideas continuously on a professional platform, while creating a methodology based upon our practice inspired by each other. To be able to measure change in attitude towards more inclusion trying out the newly learned methods and activities. The aim of the joint professional work has always been to discover, formulate and make available for other schools the idea-box for putting arts education and school projects at the service of inclusion and talent management.

We have created a professional platform, where we have collected descriptions for concrete workshops, art education lessons and school projects. The ideas have all been tried and discussed by the participants before they have shared it on the platform with others, and they all have a special focus on inclusion. In our own school/project activities, we consciously searched for and implemented such projects based on the methodology we were developing, to be able to share them afterwards on the platform. We have implemented two study tours and participated on a short internship to meet and learn from each-other, get to know each-others practice, be inspired, discuss and work together on joint professional projects. We have visited schools and art institutions, worked together with fellow teachers, project developers and artists, attended lessons, cultural festivals, visited museum pedagogical workshops. We have organised regular partner meetings to have continuous communication about the professional work going on at the partners and the common plans and tasks, informing each other about developments and discussing professional and technical issues.

The most concrete output of the project is the professional platform/homepage of the project (www.talenttales.eu). We have developed a form we use for the different workshop and project ideas, so it is comparable, and all necessary practical and methodological information can be found in all descriptions. We have collected a big number of ideas ready-to-use, all art and culture related, some of them can be performed by teachers, some by special teachers. Most of them are for children in mixed, inclusive groups, but some of them are more for adults (parents, teachers) or SEN children. A methodology with specific examples and recommendations can also be found on the platform. Important result of the project was also the established professional relationship between the partners, the big inspiration we gave each other, the experiences we gained in this international cooperation. During study tours the participants collected many good ideas, approaches, studied different inclusive and segregated environments. We have developed the draft project plan and description of the large, multi-partner project we have been preparing also during this small-scale project.