SEHD’s Kozleski chairs UNESCO inclusive education research
School of Education and Human Development
Thirty million children in the world remain unable to access basic educational opportunities. As developing nations around the world focus on expanding their educational systems, they must consider the kinds of knowledge, skills, and values that families, children and teachers need to ensure all children succeed in learning about themselves and the world they inhabit.
The School of Education & Human Development (SEHD) is collaborating with the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to initiate research and training. Last December, UNESCO appointed Elizabeth Kozleski, associate dean for research in SEHD, as UNESCO chair of inclusive education research. UNESCO chairs are awarded annually through a global, competitive process to individual colleges, universities and research institutions. In 2005, the only chair awarded in the United States went to Kozleski.
Since 1992, one of the UNESCO’s major roles in the United Nations (UN) system has been building capacity in developing countries and regions emerging from conflict through such flagship initiatives as Education for All and the UN Literacy Decade.
A focus on inclusive education addresses access to education for all children, irrespective of talent, gender, disability, socioeconomic background or cultural origin, in culturally and linguistically responsive schools and classrooms where educators work together to meet the needs of all their students. Inclusive education underscores the knowledge that academic achievement is best attained when students are challenged together to learn and explore the world around them.
Building educational systems that embrace an inclusive approach means translating values, assumptions and beliefs across the myriad of life circumstances, vision and experiences. The challenge is immense, the solutions local. For this reason, researchers and community members need to work side by side in local communities to understand the context and circumstances under which schools can be transformed.
The mission of the International Inclusive Education Research Lab is to lead an action research agenda for building inclusive educational practices and systems in developing countries with an international team of researchers. The research lab will conduct at least one north-south research study annually, working collaboratively in countries north and south of the equator. The chair will facilitate collaboration between high-level, internationally recognized researchers and teaching staff of the university as well as other institutions in the US, England, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and India. Each research team will include doctoral students who are preparing to continue this work for the foreseeable future.
Kozleski is also director of National Institute of Urban Schools Improvement and National Center for Culturally Responsive Schools. At present she is also associate dean of the School of Education & Human Development at University of Colorado Denver.