On the 18th and 19th of February 2008 a Conference for the extension of Learning Communities took take place in Euskalduna Palace, the largest conference centre in the Basque Country.
Learning Communities is one of the successful experiences studied in the Includ-ed Project which contributes towards the reduction or prevention of inequalities and marginalisation and the promotion of social inclusion and empowerment. In the Conference, Learning Communities was presented as a project which will fulfil the main educational priorities in the Basque Country and which effectively unites school and society, A plan which aims to extend Learning Communities into all of the schools in Euskadi (the Basque Country) was presented, in order to “turn the Basque Country into one big Learning Community”. The Includ-ed project provides the theoretical bases for this extension plan and the successful practices employed in the Learning Communities project provide the empirical evidence.
The conference was inaugurated by the Secretary of Education for the Basque Country. Approximately 1200 people attended the event, which contained policy-makers, public administrators, teachers and the entire educational community, including student’s family members. Educational administrators from the Autonomous Communities in which Learning Communities is already being carried out also attended this conference.
The main speakers were internationally recognised experts in education, such as Michael Apple (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), John Comings (Harvard University, USA), Ramón Flecha, the main researcher for the Includ-ed project (University of Barcelona, Spain), Mikko Ojala, also from the Includ-ed project (University of Helsinki, Finland), and other experts involved in the Learning Communities project who participated by describing their successful experiences.
