ALL-IN EXTRA TOOLS
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Disorders and Limitations
Because you can encounter many things when you work with children, you will find a link here with an explanation of disorders and limitations that you can encounter in children in the classroom and at the sports club.
Videomaterial
For trainers, coaches and teachers looking for visual material related to the subject of inclusion, here is a list of videos that are available online. This way you no longer have to spend hours searching for a video that matches your explanation!
Or contact us for a complete reference list.
Definitions
Words like diversity, inclusion, equality and connectedness are central to our work. And although you have your own internal image for these words, the meaning of each of these words is different for everyone. This means that before we start working together to create an inclusive and socially safe environment for younger generations, we must first ensure that we have the same associations with the words that have so much meaning in our work.
The definitions of these words help us design and develop our programs and support and guide sports clubs, schools and city administrations.
Diversity: the mix
When we talk about diversity, we are talking about all the traits and characteristics that each of us possesses. Think of our unique experiences, perspectives, knowledge, backgrounds, talents, ideas and social groups. Diversity is therefore about all of us and about acknowledging and recognizing the many characteristics that make us all unique.
Equality: everyone has the same foundation
When we talk about equality, we mean the right to have equal access to opportunities and fair/equal treatment. This means first of all that we ensure that discriminatory and unequal methods, systems, rules, guidelines, norms and traditions disappear from society and that we organize our systems in such a way that unequal treatment can no longer take root in our environment.
Inclusion: embracing each other
Inclusion means creating and nurturing an ecosystem that embraces and respects everyone for who they are. Inclusion means building an environment in which different knowledge, experiences, ideas and perspectives are welcome and are heard by everyone within that environment. The result is an environment in which everyone can be themselves and fully utilize their own potential.
Connectedness: feeling part of something greater
Connectedness is about feeling part of a greater community. It revolves around how each of us experiences an environment, and situations that take place within it. We feel connected when the environment is designed and maintained in such a way that we feel welcome and valued, we experience equality, and we feel free and safe enough to be fully ourselves. Without disguising or hiding parts of us in order to be accepted by others. Connectedness comes from having an inclusive and socially safe environment that we create through our ongoing attention to norms, culture, rules, guidelines and systems.
The value of a book
in the development of the inclusive competence
The subject has been a hot topic in our society for several years now; diversity. We now know quite well when our workforce is sufficiently diverse (although not every organization achieves the desired representation figure). But when is your school library diverse and why is having enough diversity in your collection even important?
Diversity is the coat rack with which we indicate that we want to see a reflection of society in our organisations, in all positions and in industries. Behind this lies the desire to realize equal opportunities for everyone and to learn to appreciate perspectives that differ from our own. That is essentially inclusiveness. We therefore prefer to speak of an inclusive book collection rather than simply of a diverse range of books.
The value of an inclusive book collection in schools has been demonstrated by various studies. While many of us don’t need research for something we can already intuit, these numbers can help you emphasize the importance of purchasing new titles from school principals and boards. Especially when you feel a certain amount of resistance to renewal.
For any child who feels part of a minority, reading inclusive collections helps to recognize their life experience. It confirms to children that others share their experience and that they are not alone in what they feel and experience (Bischop 1990, Tatum 2009 en Tatum 2017).
Furthermore, inclusive books help to preserve the culture and history associated with them and create a certain level of connection with the generations that preceded them. This supports the development of one’s own identity (Hanley en Noblit 2009). Exposure to positive figureheads from marginalized groups also contributes to a balanced development.
Furthermore, inclusive book collections make an important contribution to the development of perspective. By reading books that are detached from the dominant Western culture, children develop the ability to look at familiar situations from different perspectives. As a result, children become less sensitive to stereotypes, persistent myths and social pressure.
Finally, recognizability in books ensures a higher engagement with books and other school subjects. This leads to a positive effect on learning performance (Edwards 2010).
The overarching value of inclusive book collections for schools
The last point applies across the entire width of the school: reading books from inclusive collections contributes to an improvement of the social climate at school and in the classroom because there is sufficient room for the development of one’s own identity and the environment feels safe. The fact that the school and classroom feel safe leads to better school performance.
Another value add of having an inclusive book collection is that these books can reinforce teaching materials, and lessons that are linked to skills which fall under the inclusive competence, such as respect for duality and social skills. As a result, these skills, precisely skills that contribute to their future success in the workplace, are further strengthened. And we haven’t even mentioned the possibility to make important topics a little easier to discuss through these books, as they offer children the space to talk about gender, sexual preference, emotions and their own identity (Hughes en Hassell 2013).
Children exposed to cross-cultural topics have less prejudice towards children with other group identities, but also have a greater intrinsic motivation to interact with other children who do not overlap with their own group identity. In short: reading an inclusive book collection improves pro social development in children.
How can I test my library collection for inclusion?
Doing an inclusion audit is an intense job that you have to want to sink your teeth into (and preferably not alone). The inclusion audit is not difficult, most schools do the audit independently. If there is not enough time to do this, there are organizations that can take this process off your hands.
In the inclusion book audit you analyse the book collection on a number of important points with the aim of realizing a broad collection that contains various ideas, experiences and representations of the individual. To achieve this goal, it is important to first determine how your library currently scores on inclusion.
Before you start an audit, it is important to first set a number of objectives. Which topics have priority? What degree of diversity do you want to achieve within the defined categories? How long do you give yourself and your team time for this? To determine your objectives, you can look at demographic and psychographic figures for your country or continent. Do you only include the content of a book in your audit, or will you also test the diversity among the writers?
To give you an idea of the possible categories, here are some examples:
• Etnicity
• Mental Health and Neurodiversity
• Religion and Culture
• Gender
• Family situatie
• Individual differences (body diversity, diversity in personality/traits)
• LGBTIQ+
• Bodily Health
• Migration
• Social economic backgrounds
All-in has compiled an inclusive book list with more than 270 youth books for children between 2 and 16 years old. This list contains all Dutch-language books that contribute to the development of children’s inclusive competence. Curious? Download the Dutch book list here .
Do you want to know more about how to approach an inclusion audit for your library? We are happy to help.
Would you rather outsource your audit? Then you can also go to parties such as Books by Ani. They unburden schools from A to Z.