Further development of the ZINT project

The ZINT project (“Developing an Integrative/Inclusive School Together”) will enter its third phase from March 1, 2015, through December 31, 2018. This externally funded project was conceived by the Saxon State Ministry of Culture and Education (SMK) in cooperation with the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. It is led by the Institute for Education, Information, and Communication (BIK) at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and is evaluated and supported by the University of Leipzig’s Institute for Special Education with regard to teacher training and continuing education.

The current ZINT project is funded by the SMK with just under 730,000 euros. An SMK representative, Dr. Petra Koinzer, a government school director, supports the expanded work within the ZINT project at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. Together with Acting Professor Dr. Susanne Römer of the Special Needs Education/Inclusion Studies program, the two will jointly assume the substantive and academic leadership of the ZINT project in the future. Two staff members will take on the coordinating tasks within a full-time position.

In the existing professional development program for teachers at Saxony’s schools—the “Certificate Course in Integrative Instruction”—approximately 400 teachers have been trained since 2008. The goal of the ZINT project remains to train one teacher at each school in Saxony (approximately 1,200 in total) in integrative/inclusive teaching and school development and to equip them to handle future tasks in an inclusive school.

The teachers’ experiences and skills are utilized in various ways in the schools following the ZINT course. To support their work as advocates for integration, the ZINT project offers them—in addition to the ZINT course—in-depth professional development (ZINT Professional Development), annual conferences (ZINT Conference), and the opportunity for regionally based networking with expert support (ZINT Network).

You can find the latest information on the project website.