Joyce Clayton, Director of the Inclusive Learning Supports Branch at Alberta Education welcomed Dr. Gordon L. Porter, the Director of Inclusive Education Canada to discuss issues and strategies with more than 30 senior staff at Alberta Education in November 2012.  Porter and Clayton were panelists at a conference on Human Rights and Inclusion organized by the Atlantic Human Rights Centre at St.Thomas University in Fredericton in June 2012.

Porter is working as a senior advisor to the Education and Early Childhood Development Ministry in New Brunswick on actions to implement the Strengthening Inclusion, Strengthening Schools report released in June 2012 by Minister Hon. Jody Carr.

In the fall of 2010, inclusion was identified as part of government’s Inspiring Action on Education initiative, and Setting the Direction was renamed Action on Inclusion to signal implementation of an inclusive education system.

Several initiatives of Alberta Education support the development of inclusion in Alberta Schools. One is the online Inclusive Education Planning Tool (IEPT) designed to support teachers to create learner profiles and inform classroom planning.

A second is to use “Learning Coaches” as “potential supports for inclusion”. This strategy has been used in a number of schools and Alberta Education has put out: a literature review, a discussion paper and a proposed learning coach role description. They are available on the Action on Inclusion website.

More information can be found here.