Achievement, inclusion policies

Another example of an evolutionary system is the Scandinavian active society. The vision that a socially inclusive society in terms of (almost) everyone participating in the labour market, irrespective of gender, age, ethnicity, health, qualifications, family responsibilities etc. has already existed since the 1930s. The inclusive society entails that every resident is able to materialise his or her potential capacities. The idea of activation is thus deeply rooted in the normative foundation of the Scandinavian welfare state. Labour market participation is seen as salient to the individual s welfare and to the welfare of the collective by paying taxes. In order to achieve this, activation is perhaps the most important policy, as Peter Kohler, Jon Kvist and Lisbeth Pedersen point out in the chapter Making All Work Modern Danish Labour Market Policies . 

The most important element of this training is its impact on pupils attainment, achievement, attitude and so on, and the progress that they make. This is a difficult concept to measure accurately, however, if the training programme is targeted and driven by the inclusion strategy and policy, then it is more likely to be able to be measured in terms of outcomes. In essence, best practice shows that training is most effective when it is ... 

At the heart of the book, however, are stories from four schools, which relate the everyday experiences of children, young people and practitioners. Each school has set out to be as inclusive as possible whilst also aiming to raise the achievements of all its students. How this is undertaken, as well as the successes accomplished and challenges encountered, varies from school to school. The stories thus provide an illustrative framework for the reader to question, research and understand their own policies and practices at whatever level. 

At first sight the availability of these new national datasets appears to be a positive development for researchers, policy makers and others interested in these matters. This chapter explores the opportunities presented by them and some of the conceptual and technical problems involved in their use to explore questions about achievement and inclusion. Obviously some of these concerns arise fi om the difficulty in defining the terms inclusion and achievement, but in addition there are fundamental problems and limitations with these data that need to be understood if they are to make a useful contribution to an imderstanding of achievement and inclusion. 

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