What We Do
Supporting schools in becoming increasingly inclusive at a systems level.
NFI is a not-for-profit membership organization that supports schools at a systems level in becoming increasingly inclusive. It is our belief that school communities that embrace neurodiversity, linguistic diversity and cultural diversity are organizationally intelligent; compassionate and accessible; and reflective of the richness of the world around us.
NFI is a not-for-profit membership organization that supports schools at a systems level in becoming increasingly inclusive. It is our belief that school communities that embrace neurodiversity, linguistic diversity and cultural diversity are organizationally intelligent; compassionate and accessible; and reflective of the richness of the world around us.
Knowing the inclusion journey is hard to sustain when approached piecemeal, NFI uses a coordinated design to support schools in defining inclusion in their context, and assess and align their work along the following dimensions:
- Building common meaning and community commitment
- Designing and integrating the program
- Developing professional capacity
- Evaluating and improving the program
Professional Conversations
NFI designs these conversations based on incoming data from international schools and also in response to the needs of member schools when planning our program of conversations. Topics from previous years have included:
- Foundation Training on Inclusion (International School in Genoa)
- Building Capacity (American School of Paris)
- From Silos to Systems: Collaboration between EAL and Learning Support (Hong Kong Academy)
- Behavior Management in Inclusive International Schools (Jakarta Intercultural School)
- Children With Special Rights: Starting From Different (Reggio Emilia City Schools)
Specialized Conferences & Facilitated Conversations
NFI Conversations and other events are generally two and a half days in length and involve up to 150 participants. NFI attempts to schedule them in different locations around the world in order to encourage as much participation as possible.
NFI is a non-profit organization and the objective of these Conversations is to support international schools in becoming more inclusive of students who learn differently.
Advocacy
Schools often seek guidance and resources tailored to their specific needs, turning to the community for consultations and suggestions. Inclusive schools—where inclusion becomes part of the identity—are stronger both organizationally and morally (Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2013). These schools transform the lives of students, teachers, leaders, and the entire community. However, inclusion alone is not enough.
Just as “benign neglect” was an inadequate response to racial inequality, marginalized students, who are often the most vulnerable, deserve the best educational opportunities we can provide. We must be proactive in ensuring they receive the support and excellence they are entitled to.
Program Audits: Learning Support Audits
Member schools may ask for reviews of their support programs (Learning Support on its own, or LS and EAL together). NFI takes a systems approach in reviewing what is in place at the school to support neurodiverse and multilingual children and uses published standards from the NFI document, Towards Inclusion. We review the four dimensions of inclusion: Developing Common Meaning and Community Commitment; Designing and Integrating the Program; Building Professional Capacity; and Evaluating and Improving the Program.
Leading the Way
NFI Leading The Way (LTW) initiatives represent the research arm of Next Frontier Inclusion. Through LTW, NFI publishes monographs on topics of current interest or challenge areas in inclusive international school practices. One important objective of the NFI non-profit organization is to provide ongoing professional resources for schools on their journey towards inclusion through this collaborative initiative.
