InTrans

Every child has the right to a quality educational experience.

In the last decade, transitions of children across the home environment, early childhood education, and care (ECEC) and compulsory school education (CSE) has gained attention both in academic and in policy debates. Despite this, very few initiatives engage today professionals, children, families, and local communities in the creation of warm and inclusive transitional practices. InTrans addresses this gap by acting at policy and pre and in-service training levels.

The InTrans project ended in March 2023. Read here about the achievements of the consortium.

 

Who is involved?

Centre For Innovation in the Early Years (VBJK) of Belgium (ISSA Member) is the coordinator of this international project. University of Ghent (Centre for Diversity and Learning and Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy) in Belgium, University of Bologna in Italy, Tampere University in Finland, the Education Research Institute (ERI) in Slovenia (ISSA Member), and the Danish Union of Early Childhood and Youth Educators (BUPL) in Denmark,  are partners in this project, together with ISSA (International Step by Step Association), which leads its dissemination activities.

What is the aim?

The project’s overall goal is to ensure that all children and families — especially the most vulnerable — benefit from warm and inclusive transitional practice in ECEC and school, by supporting professionals through action at the policy, advocacy and training levels.

How does InTrans do this?

InTrans promotes inclusive transitional education by working on three levels:

Policy and Governance
The project facilitates activities to create awareness, knowledge development, and exchange for national and international policymakers in order for them to develop a shared vision on warm and inclusive transitions and corresponding policy measurements.

Baseline Policy Reports 
Download: Overview | BELGIUM (FL) | FINLAND | ITALY | SLOVENIA

Cross-national policy analysis 
Download: Executive Summary

InTrans Infographics
Download: Overview | DENMARK | BELGIUM (FL) | FINLAND | ITALY | SLOVENIA

Country-specific policy recommendations 
Download: ITALY (IT)

 

In-Service training of ECEC/primary school staff

InTrans supports in-service trainers with vision, knowledge, examples of good practices, and tools to invest in the creation of warm and inclusive transitions with ECEC/primary school staff. Visit the digital InTrans Resource Package.

The InTrans Resource Package consists of five interconnected modules highlight topics that enable practitioners working in the ECEC and primary school environment to create smooth transition practices. They include the importance of warm and inclusive transitional practices, how to engage with families and children, inspiring transitional practices, how learning can happen across institutions, and how to create systemic change.  

 

Pre-service training of future ECEC and primary school staff
Through exchanges and debates, this project raises awareness amongst pre-service training institutions about the importance of investing in warm and inclusive transitions. The InTrans consortium produced a comparative report bringing together findings from Belgium (Flemish Community), Finland, Italy, and Slovenia on the role of transitions in the curricula for pre-service professionals in training.

Initial Training Cross-country 
Download: Overview | Comparative Report

Baseline analysis report 
Download: BELGIUM (FL) - English, Dutch | FINLAND | ITALY | SLOVENIA    

 

Resources

Scroll down for InTrans-related resources and keep up-to-date with other relevant resources regarding warm and inclusive transitions.

 

This project is funded by the Erasmus+ program, Key Action 3. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Photo: ©Caroline Boudry