ABSTRACT
The large-scale European Union-funded research INCLUD-ED, Strategies for Inclusion and Social Cohesion in Europe from Education (European Commission, FP6, 2006-2011) has identified Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) that have improved educational outcomes for many children and young people in Europe. These actions are characterised by reorganising the available resources in the school and the community to support all pupils’ academic achievement, instead of segregating some of them according to ability or by lowering down their educational opportunities. SEAs derive from a rigorous analysis of the educational systems, theories and practices, particularly, from the successful actions identified in 27 case studies across the European Union of schools serving families from low socio-economic status where children achieve excellent results (Valls & Padrós, 2011). For instance, some SEAs studied through the INCLUDED Project are interactive groups, dialogic reading, after-school clubs and some family education programmes like the dialogic literary gatherings. As a result of implementing these SEAs, these schools have improved students’ performance and enhanced social cohesion, providing all children with better learning opportunities to reduce social and educational inequalities (Flecha, García, Gómez, & Latorre, 2009). These are not isolated best practices that lead to good results in particular cases or contexts. Rather, they are actions which have resulted in school success in different countries and very different environments, as they contain universal components, transferable across con-texts. These SEAs were clarified in the INCLUD-ED Final Conference, held at the European Parliament’s headquarters on 6 December 2011. Researchers, including Members of Parliament, and end-users-including Roma family members-presented together the actions that have evidenced improvements in schools and communities, regardless of children’s ethnic background or socioeconomic status.
