Establishing an inclusive educational system in Samara a partnership between West Lothian, Barnardo's and Samara

Abstract

In this article Laura Ann Currie and Victoria Prudnikova describe a three–year Russian/Scottish partnership designed to take forward an inclusive educational policy in the Samara Region of Russia. Education staff from West Lothian Council and Barnardo's visited the Samara Region to train staff there to help take forward their inclusion programme. It was an ambitious project for our Russian colleagues. Their starting position was one where young disabled children were sent away to be ‘corrected’ in institutions miles from their family and friends. Disability was feared and shameful and the prevailing medical model presented philosophical and practical difficulties in taking forward an inclusive approach. Despite these difficulties colleagues in Samara have picked up the baton and are running with it. For West Lothian staff it has been an affirming, often humbling, but challenging experience.