Nahia Intxausti

Effective and inclusive schools? Attention to diversity in highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country

ABSTRACT This paper forms part of a research project that aims to characterise best practices in highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (ARBC). The aim is for the best practices identified to serve as points of reference when designing improvement plans to be implemented in all schools in the ARBC, with the advice and support of the education inspectorate. Highly effective schools are identified through the results of the Diagnostic Assessments carried out by the Basque Institute for Research and Evaluation in Education (ISEI-IVEI) of all primary and secondary schools in the ARBC. Multilevel statistical modelling and Hierarchical Linear Models were used to select 32 highly effective schools, with highly effective being taken to mean any school with higher-than-expected student results after adjusting for the effect of contextual factors. Eighty-three interviews were conducted with management teams, educational advisors and inspectors at each of the selected schools. This paper presents the results obtained in relation to how attention to diversity is organised. The practices identified included, among others, inclusive actions such as support teaching in ordinary classrooms, the splitting up of classroom groups, the formation of heterogeneous groups and the conceptualisation of the support provided as a shared teaching responsibility.

Educational leadership as best practice in highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque County (Spain)

This study presents part of a research project currently underway which aims to characterise the best practices of highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (Spain). Multilevel statistical modelling and hierarchical linear models were used to select 32 highly effective schools, with highly effective being taken to mean any school with higher-than-expected student results after adjusting for the effect of contextual factors. Subsequently, qualitative techniques were used to record the perceptions of the management teams, educational advisors and inspectors of the selected schools regarding the practices in place in their organisations. This paper presents the results obtained in relation to leadership. These results indicate that leadership comprises a number of different competences that are manifested to different extents in the different schools, although a set of elements was identified as being common to the majority, namely: positive leadership in the school management, a clearly defined mission shared by all professionals, a positive attitude to training and lifelong learning, the ability to foster the commitment and motivation of the teaching staff in relation to a common school project, support for teaching and learning processes, attention paid to questions of peaceful and harmonious coexistence and well-organised coordination.

La percepción de los tutores sobre la implicación educativa de las familias inmigrantes en la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco=Classroom teachers' perceptions on the educational involvement of inmigrant families in the autonomous community of the Basque

La presente investigacion ha tratado de conocer las percepciones del profesorado tutor en torno a la implicacion educativa de las familias inmigrantes con hijos e hijas en la Educacion Primaria de la Comunidad Autonoma del Pais Vasco. La llegada del alumnado de familia de origen inmigrante ha puesto de manifiesto la importancia de establecer puentes de interaccion y comunicacion entre la familia y la escuela. El estudio empirico, de caracter cualitativo, se realizo mediante un cuestionario con preguntas abiertas a 123 tutores de 24 centros educativos de las tres provincias de la Comunidad Autonoma del Pais Vasco. En el discurso de los tutores se resalto que la implicacion educativa de las familias era, sobre todo, de caracter academico y de apoyo social. Se consideraba que la implicacion escolar de la familia era menor que la del hogar y que se centraba fundamentalmente en la relacion personalizada con el profesor tutor. De modo que las familias en general participaban menos en reuniones de aula u otras actividades organizadas en la escuela. Los tutores consideraban que la implicacion educativa comprendia ademas de la dimension academica y socio-afectiva, la dimension linguistica-cultural. Ello responde, en cierta medida, a la situacion de bilinguismo social y escolar del Sistema Educativo Vasco y al valor que los tutores atribuyen a esta dimension como factor clave para la integracion. This present research seeks to find out the perceptions of teachers/tutors regarding the educational involvement of immigrant families that have children in Primary Education in the Autonomous Community of Pais Vasco (Spain). The arrival of pupils of immigrant-origin families has revealed the importance of establishing bridges of interaction and communication between family and school. The empirical study, of qualitative nature, was carried out with 123 teachers at 24 schools from the three provinces of the Autonomous Community mentioned. The discourse of the teachers underlined that educational involvement of the families was, above all, of academic nature and involved also social support. The educational involvement of the families at school was smaller than the one addressed in the homes of those families. In this sense it lied down fundamentally on the personalised relationship with the teacher, rather than participation in meetings and other activities organized by the school. The teachers believed that educational involvement should include, apart from the academic and socio-affective dimension, the linguistic-cultural one. That responded, in some extent, to the social and educational bilingual situation of the Educational System from Pais Vasco, and to the importance tutors attribute to that dimension as a key factor for integration of the inmigrant families.