The EU 4 Inclusive Teaching project is a 4-year joint initiative of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), the Open Society Foundation for Albania (OSFA, Lead partner), and the Albanian Ministry of Education and Sports, aimed at increasing capacity and awareness in inclusive education and modern pedagogy among Albanian pre-university teachers. The main activity of TAMK was to design and implement a trainer-of-the-trainer (ToT) programme to address Albania’s specific educational needs, including the ones set by the recent curriculum reform and the growing demand for continuing teacher education. The need for this tailored, in-service training in inclusive practices has been widely recognised globally among teachers (e.g., Ainscow, 2020; Brussino, 2021). The programme was developed and carried out jointly with Tampere University (TAU) in 2022–2024. During the ToT programme, Finnish teacher trainers from Tampere Universities delivered a training consisting of five on-site and online modules. All training materials and content were translated into Albanian by local partners to ensure their relevance and applicability to the local context.
Over 320 Albanian teachers were trained to act as mentor teachers on inclusive, modern, and competence-based pedagogy. The idea is that the new skills and competencies gained during the ToT programme will be shared through cascade training so that the mentor teachers will train their colleagues, ultimately reaching approximately 15,000 pre-university teachers across the country. The role of these local mentor teachers is crucial: they not only adapt and apply the training content to the Albanian context, but also play a key role in the professional development of a significant portion of Albania’s pre-university teachers. The follow-up cascade training will be delivered online and onsite from Summer 2025 onwards.
Many countries, including Albania, have committed to making education more inclusive, as reflected in Agenda 2030 and other global agreements promoting educational equality, the leading idea being that inclusive education ensures the right to education for all children (UNESCO, 2020, 2015). However, some key barriers have been identified in previous research, such as teachers’ negative attitudes toward inclusion, perceived lack of competence in addressing student diversity, insufficient support, a shortage of teaching assistants and other professionals, and inadequate resources (Triviño-Amigo et al., 2022; Chow et al., 2023). In order to explore these barriers and key elements of successful implementation of transnational continuing education, an empirical data set from the Finnish teacher educators was gathered during the ToT programme. The Finnish trainers’ reflections on the factors that contributed to or hindered the effectiveness of the training were gathered after each on-site training day and then analysed through thematic content analysis.
Trainers of the EU 4 Inclusive Teaching project as bridge-builders to the local educational context in Albania
One of the key issues hindering effective implementation was found to be the limited institutional support provided to transnational educators. This kind of lack of institutional backing leaves educators rather alone (Whieldon, 2019), although local guidance to complex educational environments would be essential. In the case of the EU 4 Inclusive Teaching project, a lot of groundwork was done before the ToT programme for getting a realistic understanding of the professional situation of Albanian teachers. This familiarisation phase with the local educational context included, e.g., expert presentations, workshops with local teachers, visits to Albanian schools, and review of the relevant literature and research. In addition, several local co-trainers were involved in the delivery of the ToT programme to ensure the relevancy of training methods and content.
Despite these preparations, the Finnish trainers felt that not all the training content fully served the Albanian participants, though the majority of the chosen contents and methods seemed to fit the needs of the participants – this was echoed in the feedback gathered from the participants after each on-site module. These kinds of issues in regard to the adaptability of educational ideas between two countries have been recognised in earlier studies as well (Zen et al., 2022; Allen et al., 2018; Villegas-Reimers, 2003).
Based on the results, concrete ways to build bridges between trainers and teachers in future transnational continuing education programmes could be wider utilisation of participatory learning tasks, discussions and intensive collaboration throughout the training programme; a collegial, equal and appreciative educational approach by transnational trainers; and finally, engaging the local co-teachers to the delivery of the training programme.
Maria Salomaa, Principal Lecturer, Applied Research Center, Tampere University of Applied Sciences
Roosa Yli-Pietilä, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University
References
Ainscow, M. (2020). Promoting inclusion and equity in education: lessons from international experiences. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy 6 (1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2020.1729587
Allen, W., Hyde, M., Whannel, R. & O’Neill, M. (2018). Teacher reform in Indonesia: can offshore programs create lasting pedagogical shift? Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 46:1, 22-37, DOI: 10.1080/1359866X.2017.1355051
Brussino, O. (2021). ”Building capacity for inclusive teaching: Policies and practices to prepare all teachers for diversity and inclusion”, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 256, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/57fe6a38-en.
Chow, W. S. E., de Bruin, K., & Sharma, U. (2023). A scoping review of perceived support needs of teachers for implementing inclusive education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-20.