To be a legitimate advocate for marginalized groups, several national education coalitions are working towards being more internally inclusive. Some by adding more or more diverse members to their coalitions and others by ensuring an internally inclusive environment.
In the Education Out Loud progress reports you will find entire sub-sections devoted to “Results related to NEC’s Inclusivity”. In the latter one reads for instance “that all 60 national education coalitions have participation of organizations that represent women and girls and 57 have participation of organizations that represent people living with disabilities.
It also states how around 1/3 of the coalitions have at least 50 percent female members of their board and that 7 out of 60 education coalitions currently have representation of LGBT+ groups.
EOL Global Program Manager, Lars Udsholt he stresses, that the issue of internal inclusiveness of both the Education Out Loud secretariat and all the implementing organizations and coalitions is something to take seriously and have as a priority.
“I think that to legitimately voice the need for inclusive education you need to walk the talk and work to become inclusive yourself,” he says. And adds:
“Furthermore, for the coalitions to promote the voice of the marginalized groups, these groups should of course be represented in the NECs since the marginalized groups know better than any, what they face and what they need.”
There is a need to “walk the talk”
The national education coalitions actively working to become more internally inclusive, echo this perspective. They wish to become an even more legitimate voice in the debate and in their advocacy work. And they want to have the voices and knowledge of marginalized groups represented in their coalition to better ensure the quality and relevance of their efforts.
For further information: https://educationoutloud.org/how-necs-are-working-walk-talk-inclusivity
