Panel Discussion 'Diversity, Equality and Accessibility as Strategic Concepts and Goals for the Development of an Inclusive Society'

On the 20-21th of October 2021 the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference 'Inclusive Education and Society: Strategies, Practices and Resources' is held in the mixed format, both online and offline. During the conference’s panel discussion 'Diversity, Equality and Accessibility as Strategic Concepts and Goals for the Development of an Inclusive Society' there were made five presentations.

This representative conference unites researchers, experts, teachers, social workers, public figures and politicians, leaders of NGOs and charity sector. It was organized by the Council on Guardianship under the Russian Federation Government, the Ministry of Education, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education in partnership with UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education and National Research University 'Higher School of Economics.'

During the panel discussion ‘Diversity, equality and accessibility as strategic concepts and goals for the development of an inclusive society’ five presentations were made, including one by colleagues from Finland. Among the topics brought into attention were values and guidelines for the transformation of social institutions in the context of the spread of such concepts as ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’, ‘accessibility’.

The series of panel presentations was opened by Prof. Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, PhD, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology of Culture, Head of the International Laboratory for Social Integration Research in NRU HSE, with a presentation on ‘Discursive field of inclusion in social science, policy and practice’. She offered an academic overview of the history of the origin and development of inclusion as a response to social problems, an agenda of social policy, an important component of modern public discourse. The limitation of the binary understanding of the concepts of exclusion and inclusion was emphasized, and emphasis was put on the diversity of inclusion.

The next presentation, ‘Inclusive education: How to combine equality in supporting diversity with accessibility requirements?’, was made by Alexey Shemanov, Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, professor at the Department of Special Psychology and Rehabilitology of Moscow State University of Psychology and Education. Basing on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the speaker analyzed the key principles of inclusive education and pointed out contradictions in the implementation of the combination of accessibility requirements and equality of rights in supporting diversity.

Viktoria Antonova, PhD, Doctor of Sciences in Management Sociology, professor at the Department of General Sociology in NRU HSE, continued with the presentation on ‘The value of inclusion in the development of human capital. The speaker presented the results of qualitative research of how HR managers of various levels working in companies on Russian territory regard such values as inclusion and inclusive employment, focusing on the ways the inclusion contributes to the development of human capital. This research is conducted as a part of the project of Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center in NRU HSE. Basing on secondary data from World Values Survey, the speaker stated that the possibility of inclusion in Russian value system is still questionable. At the same time, the primary results of empirical research of HR managers allow us to assume that the value of inclusion is important for the development of three main components of human capital: abilities, readiness and capabilities of each person, without exception (including persons with disabilities). An increase in the inclusiveness of society leads to an increase in the subjectivity of people with disabilities, to strengthening of agency of business and other institutions that form the environment of human capital, to overcoming stereotypes in relation to people with disabilities and to the creation of inclusive culture in various organizations.

The next two presentations on the panel discussion dealt with international experience of approaching the inclusion. The presentation ‘Complex approaches to inclusion of people with disabilities: international practice and experience of the World Bank’ was made by Nina Kolybashkina (Washington DC, USA), the World Bank’s senior specialist in social development. An interesting and relevant report not only stressed the issues of the World Bank's policy on the participation and inclusion of people with disabilities, but also introduced the research that the World Bank conducted to study the barriers and opportunities for the participation of people with disabilities in the labor market in the Russian Federation.

Finally, the presentation ‘Inclusive education in Finland: policy, culture, practice’ was made by Tina Parviainen and Jari Kartuneniz from the University of Applied Sciences (Finland). The speakers discussed key characteristics and new achievements made in the development of inclusive education in Finland, particularly in the system of inclusive professional education. The speakers shared their experience of how a professional educator should use an individual approach to find possible and feasible learning paths for each student with special needs and how to fairly agree with students on goals that they can take on. At the same time, it develops the teacher's competence and their attitude to inclusion and diversity.

The panel discussion ‘Diversity, equality and accessibility as strategic concepts and goals for the development of an inclusive society’ was organized by its moderator Maria Kozlova, Chief Research Fellow of IL SIR, and has attracted various audience consisting of offline (15 persons) and online (28 persons) participants.

The emphasis was made on the analysis of the transformations of the idea of ​​inclusion and corresponding social practices, the coincidences / contradictions in the interpretations of diversity and inclusion by different stakeholders (the state, the academic community, NGOs, business), on the differences between the Russian experience in the development of inclusive institutions and the global one, on the assessment of the contribution of inclusion to the development of human capital in various organizations and Russian society as a whole.

Even despite a limited time format, the listeners managed to ask questions to the speakers and get detailed and interesting answers.