ICI Researchers Promote Inclusive Education in Denmark and Ukraine

Renáta Tichá (standing at right) and Brian Abery of ICI's Global Resource Center for Inclusive Education traveled to Denmark and Ukraine in late October to continue their international work supporting research on, and implementation of, inclusive education practices.

In Denmark, Abery and Tichá shared their work on the implementation of Response to Intervention, as well as the use of curriculum-based measurement to drive instructional decision-making for students who experience significant cognitive disabilities, with faculty, researchers, and students at the 1st Annual Inclusive Education Summit sponsored by the University College of Northern Denmark and Aalborg University. The pair then traveled to Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, and presented on a variety of evidence-based inclusive education teaching practices to students, area teachers, and faculty at the Inclusion Without Borders Conference supporting the inclusive education community at Ivano-Frankivsk College, Carpathian National University. While in Ivano-Frankivsk, Abery and Tichá also met with ICI's former Inclusive Education Fellows (funded by the U.S. Department of State ADA Anniversary Inclusive Education Fellowship Program) from Ukraine in planning sessions designed to help launch a recently awarded inclusive education training grant funded by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

"Our work in Denmark was enriched by an opportunity one afternoon to provide feedback to students from the University College planning to conduct their senior theses on the topic of inclusion" says Abery. "The trip to Ukraine is an example of sustained collaboration that began with the ADA Fellowship Program on Inclusive Education and now focuses on inclusive education practices in different settings across Ukraine, supported by a U.S. Embassy grant awarded to fellow alumni from the country," says Tichá.