The Teacher Task Force Thematic Group on "Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices" will organise a side event at the Global Disability Summit (GDS) 2025, taking place in Berlin, Germany, on April 2-3, 2025. 

The summit is co-hosted by the Governments of Germany and Jordan and the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and will bring together over 3000 participants, including world leaders, organizations, and stakeholders from various sectors.

The GDS aims to increase global commitment to disability-inclusive development, emphasizing that disability inclusion is a fundamental human right and should be prioritized by governments and organizations worldwide. The summit will focus on:

• Disability inclusion as a key driver of development and resilience.
• The importance of investing in disability-inclusive policies and practices.
• Showcasing best practices and successful initiatives from around the world.

The summit will also offer a platform for stakeholders to submit commitments that support disability-inclusive development. Pledges can be submitted starting in June 2024.

More details regarding content and structure of the side event organised by the Teacher Task Force Thematic Group on "Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices" will be shared in due course.

For more information regarding the Summit and to register, click here.

The Teacher Task Force Thematic Group on "Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices" will organise a side event at the Global Disability Summit (GDS) 2025, taking place in Berlin, Germany, on April 2-3, 2025. 

The summit is co-hosted by the Governments of Germany and Jordan and the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and will bring together over 3000 participants, including world leaders, organizations, and stakeholders from various sectors.

The GDS aims to increase global commitment to disability-inclusive development, emphasizing that disability inclusion is a fundamental human right and should be prioritized by governments and organizations worldwide. The summit will focus on:

• Disability inclusion as a key driver of development and resilience.
• The importance of investing in disability-inclusive policies and practices.
• Showcasing best practices and successful initiatives from around the world.

The summit will also offer a platform for stakeholders to submit commitments that support disability-inclusive development. Pledges can be submitted starting in June 2024.

More details regarding content and structure of the side event organised by the Teacher Task Force Thematic Group on "Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices" will be shared in due course.

For more information regarding the Summit and to register, click here.

In the build-up to the Global Disability Summit 2025 to be held on 2-3 April in Germany, the Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices Thematic Group are delighted to invite you to attend three knowledge exchange learning sessions on policies and practices on teachers with disabilities. 

This is the last of three learning sessions. The session will be interactive and participatory. Three members will make short presentations on the topic and participants will be invited to share their experience, evidence and learning in breakout rooms. The session will be facilitated in English; however, we will welcome if there any volunteers who would like to facilitate breakout sessions in different languages.  We will use Team's chat function which allows to translate the conversation in different languages.

 In this session, we are going to focus our discussion on policies and practices on continuing professional development opportunities and career paths for teachers with disabilities. 

• What kinds of opportunities are provided for people with disabilities to participate in teacher training programmes? 
• What are the key challenges and gaps in policy related to supporting teachers with disabilities and their professional growth? 
• What recommendations can be made to better support teachers with disabilities and promote greater inclusion and accessibility in their teaching contexts?  
• What roles Edtech can play in increasing access of teachers with disabilities to continuing professional development? 

As an output of this session, we will produce a knowledge brief.

Please register here.

In the build-up to Global Disability Summit 2025 to be held on 2-3 April in Germany, the Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices Thematic Group are delighted to invite you to attend three knowledge exchange learning sessions on policies and practices on teachers with disabilities. 

This is the second of three learning sessions. The session will be interactive and participatory. Three members will make short presentations on the topic and participants will be invited to share their experience, evidence and learning in breakout rooms. The session will be facilitated in English ; however, we will welcome if there any volunteers who would like to facilitate breakout sessions in different languages. We will use Team's chat function which allows to translate the conversation in different languages. 

 In the second session, we are going to focus our discussion on recruitment and deployment of teachers with disabilities.  

• What recruitment policies and programmes/initiatives have been effective for increasing the number of teachers with disabilities? 
• What considerations are made for teachers with disabilities when they are recruited and deployed? 

As an output of this session, we will produce a knowledge brief. 

 Please register here.

The objective of the webinar is to build capacity of Vocational Education and Training (VET) leaders and practitioners on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER), as a way to increase the innovation potential and inclusion of their educational offer. OER are  teaching and learning materials intentionally released with open licenses, that give users the right to own, share, and in most cases, modify them. Within Higher Education, the use of OER has shown the potential to reduce accessibility barriers and at the same time to support co-creation practices, but in the VET sector the use of these approaches is still limited.

During the webinar, the concept of OER will be introduced and exemplified through some successful practices of VET schools that are using OER in their daily work, followed by a discussion on how to further promote the use of such resources in TVET.

Register here.

Agenda

15:00 Welcome and Introduction to the webinar, Fabio Nascimbeni, ETF

15:05 Open Educational Resources: a smart approach for inclusion and innovation, Lisa Petrides, ISKME and ICDE

15:30 Cases of high-impact OER use within VET

• OER Champions for colleges in Ontario. Mary Gu, eCampus Ontario
• AI and OER, Open Content for Future Learning, Ulf Ehlers, Dual University of Baden Wuttemberg

16: 00 Existing OER support tools for VET practitioners and leaders

• The OER practices collection, Max Ehlers, UNESCO-UNEVOC
• The OER Advocacy Committee, ICDE, Ebba Ossiannilsson

16:20 Ideas and questions collection for future work

16:30 Closing

UNESCO and Plan International are pleased to invite you to the international webinar Every learner matters: Disability inclusion and gender equality in education that will take place on Monday 4 December 2023, from 13:00 to 14:30 (CET), on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December). 

One of the purposes of this webinar will be to identify challenges and recommendations to be addressed at different levels, including by governments, teachers and families.

The commitment of eliminating barriers to education and creating accessible and inclusive learning environments, as marked in the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development, is essential to leave no learner behind.  

While progress has been made, the inclusion of learners with disabilities in education demands going beyond access and providing adequate infrastructure: it is also a matter of assuring their participation, learning progression and attainment, and creating safe and inclusive learning environments.  

To ensure that the right to education is fully guaranteed, we must understand and tackle the roots of exclusion and discrimination. Gender inequality is a compounding factor of exclusion of learners with disabilities. For this, education systems must be disability inclusive as well as gender transformative.  

The theme of this year’s webinar focuses on disability and gender inequality as intersecting challenges to education. It will also address key topics as comprehensive sexuality education, bullying and violence, school health and nutrition. Examples of good practices from different regions of the world will be presented by a wide range of experts and stakeholders. 

The event will take place through the Zoom platform and will be available in English, French and Spanish with International Sign Language interpretation. Automatic closed captions will be provided through Zoom. 

To join the webinar on Zoom, please register in advance.  

UNESCO and Plan International are pleased to invite you to the international webinar Every learner matters: Disability inclusion and gender equality in education that will take place on Monday 4 December 2023, from 13:00 to 14:30 (CET), on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December). 

One of the purposes of this webinar will be to identify challenges and recommendations to be addressed at different levels, including by governments, teachers and families.

The commitment of eliminating barriers to education and creating accessible and inclusive learning environments, as marked in the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development, is essential to leave no learner behind.  

While progress has been made, the inclusion of learners with disabilities in education demands going beyond access and providing adequate infrastructure: it is also a matter of assuring their participation, learning progression and attainment, and creating safe and inclusive learning environments.  

To ensure that the right to education is fully guaranteed, we must understand and tackle the roots of exclusion and discrimination. Gender inequality is a compounding factor of exclusion of learners with disabilities. For this, education systems must be disability inclusive as well as gender transformative.  

The theme of this year’s webinar focuses on disability and gender inequality as intersecting challenges to education. It will also address key topics as comprehensive sexuality education, bullying and violence, school health and nutrition. Examples of good practices from different regions of the world will be presented by a wide range of experts and stakeholders. 

The event will take place through the Zoom platform and will be available in English, French and Spanish with International Sign Language interpretation. Automatic closed captions will be provided through Zoom. 

To join the webinar on Zoom, please register in advance.