Inspiration from abroad
INDIAN INSPIRATION
Sociální pedagogika | Social Education 94
volume 7, issue 2, pp. 94–102, November 2019
ISSN 1805-8825
Inspiration from abroad
Dr Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education
Inclusive schooling in mainstream education
Linda Jandejsková
Over the past decades inclusive education has proved to be a successful model in many schools
inside and outside Europe. Students can excel in this model, while learning to build relationships,
understanding their viewpoints and value systems and developing important social skills and a
positive attitude towards life and society. Yet mainstream education often distances itself from this
type of education. Teachers, school management and parents sometimes find this method
challenging, impossible or even destructive. They often feel simply overloaded by the many aspects
of their work in education. Inclusive schooling requires long-term preparation involving constant self-
reflection, courage, a conscious presence and common vision shared by all employees of the school.
In this sense we often seem to be standing on the edge of an ice-cold lake dipping just our toes into
the water.
Along with the legislative support of inclusive trends at Czech schools, teachers suddenly found
themselves asked to deal with the issue of how exactly should inclusive education be carried out in
practice. How to work with the children who suddenly appeared in their classes, when the schools,
teachers and classroom collectives were mostly unprepared for this? How to coordinate the
expectations of the authorities, principals, teachers, assistants, parents and the children themselves?
Dr Mooney’s experience offers solutions – principles that need to be articulated, understood, and
accepted by all parties entering the educational process in a school, which decides to be inclusive,
and practical methods to cope with situations arising in the classroom. Her inclusive model is based
on a holistic and deeply reflective approach, where students are not supposed to achieve on just the
academic level, but also through their interactions and relationships with others, through their
characters and personalities, their participation in non-academic activities and their commitment to
serving the community. Dr Mooney established her inclusive model through constant work with
teachers and other staff, students and parents, and by establishing the child’s needs, relationships
and values as the focus of the school’s interests. In her approach the child’s personal development is
as important as his or her academic achievement. Special attention is given to the values of everyday
life within the school. Despite the fact that Dr Mooney's experience comes from India and arose from
the needs she sensed within her own environment, her model also offers many solutions to our
situation.1
1 This text was generated on the basis of the author’s personal experience with Dr Cyril Mooney (Sister Cyril)
at the Loreto Sealdah School, during work on the Sit Beside Me film and during teacher training courses organised in the Czech Republic (2012–2017). Much of the text is derived from the book titled Transforming
schools for social justice & inclusive education, written by Dr Mooney (2019) as an aid to principals and teachers interested in the topic. More about Dr Mooney, including the summary of the school’s outreach,
can be found here.
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Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
Values as a key for creating an inclusive environment
"The atmosphere of the school is a subtle entity, which reflects the way in which the philosophy of
the school is lived out. It is a compound of physical surroundings, people's faces, words spoken,
and attitudes shown in the treatment people receive and in the decisions made by the school."
SM Cyril Mooney
Values and attitudes influence our everyday decisions, which direct our thinking and our focus in life.
They are the basis for our decision-making and actions; one of the most important activators, apart
from our basic needs, family archetypes and group paradigms. Values are also the basis for forming
healthy relationships, trust within the community and for fulfilment of our goals. They help us to
connect to ourselves and to others. Values become a type of guideline, an anchoring point for our
orientation in the ethical and relational world, which it is crucial to experience at a young age.
Despite this fact, minimal time is spent in schools in open peer-to-peer and class communication
regarding value systems, relationships and feelings.
The opportunity we receive at a young age to reflect on our values, attitudes and feelings, without
being corrected, evaluated or even criticized, is crucial to the way we act and solve problems as
adults. Freedom is an utterly important component of this process. When the opportunity created
for children to reflect on their life experience and attitudes is not safe, and also if they know what
answer they are expected to give in order to be rewarded (or not to give in order to avoid being
disparaged), children quickly learn to either comply with the system and give the "right answers" or
to revolt. They learn that to be dishonest is acceptable and convenient, or they lose interest, are
marginalised and eventually disconnect. In an excessively controlling and unsafe environment
children learn to survive through intensification or withdrawal, instead of developing their potential.
This also applies on the macro level of the school. When rules become more important than people
and too much control is applied, and when there is not enough opportunity for safe and constructive
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Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
sharing by each participant, processes become more exhausting, inner motivation is suppressed and
inclusive education is virtually impossible.
However, classroom discussion is not sufficient to conscientize our own value system. Activities that
matter to us need to be practiced through real life experience and by nurturing the understanding of
ourselves in relation to the world. Hands-on experience is the most valuable lesson, providing
children with the opportunity to learn how to handle crises, organise thoughts, draw boundaries, be
open, be emphatic, to mature and to communicate. This can only happen as part of social
interaction, for which school is the ideal place. Therefore it is necessary to take the topics discussed
in classes outside school, for example through community service, a project or in the way the school
is organised. The validity of such practice is also confirmed by the theories of cognitive and social
constructivism. One of the rules most intensively promoted by Dr Mooney was to provide education
where 90% of the work was practical and only 10 % theoretical. This is especially true in relation to
value education.
Genesis of Dr Mooney’s approach
"I don’t see problems as problems, I see them as puzzles to be solved."
SM Cyril Mooney
In India overly ambitious parents place tremendous pressure on the principals of good private
schools to maintain the high standards and prestige of these schools and its students at all costs. This
leads to a very competitive school environment where disadvantaged children, mostly with very little
intellectual stimulation from their home environment, poor nutrition etc., have no place and quickly
get marginalized or even pushed out completely. This was also the situation Dr Mooney faced in
Kolkata. She describes two profiles of children with very different starting conditions - those from the
poorest families and those who had all the advantages. As the principal of a competition-based
private school for affluent Anglo-Indian girls, her goal became to transform this school into a
community-based model and include children who were on the margins of society, while maintaining
Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
the school’s high academic standards. The Loreto Sealdah School became the canvas available for her
to work with.
Dr Mooney became the principal of her school in 1979. Yet even today her experience can offer a lot
of inspiration that has an impact not only in India, but in Canada, England, Australia, the Czech
Republic and other corners of the World. In India her concept and some of her programmes were
adapted by the government with the plan to initially implement them in 600 schools. Dr Mooney was
an advisor to this process in the years following her retirement from the school in 2012. Other Loreto
schools have also adapted her programs after observing the effect of her methods. Many of the
projects originated from the ideas and activities of Loreto Sealdah students.
Dr Mooney's ideas and practices are still alive today and are being researched to find out how much
the model has spread, how it is being used and developed and what its future is. Dr Mooney has
shared her experience via seminars held in India and internationally, developed a complex
programme for teacher training and created a series of value education textbooks titled We Are The
World. She has also summarised her findings in a book titled Transforming Schools for Social Justice
and Inclusive Education. Educators all over the world find inspiration in her school in Kolkata because
of the universality of a method based on sharing values common across all cultures and mirroring
everyday practice.
The book titled Transforming Schools for Social Justice and Inclusive Education was originally
dedicated to principals and teachers who were facing the Right to Education (RTE) Act in India in
2009. As a result of this new law they were required to admit up to 25 % children from the most
disadvantaged backgrounds, children who did not previously visit a school. They were suddenly faced
with many problems on how to handle this situation. Many voices were heard saying “This type of
school cannot be for this type of child” (Mooney, 2019, p. 3).
Despite very different settings and problems (e.g. the numbers of children, coordinating children of
different castes and religions, older illiterate children with illiterate parents etc.), these arguments
and discussions also resemble some of the discussions on inclusive education we have experienced in
the Czech Republic. Let's have a closer look at this material, which can be useful in transforming our
schools into more inclusive institutions.
In the classroom
When transitioning to inclusive education the first question everyone asks is how to handle everyday
classroom situations. One of the first steps that can be taken is to gradual involve much more group
work, leaving decisions and responsibilities to the children as much as possible.
1
Group work
In our experience, this kind of group work is a very good place to start with in schools, as many of
them already work with groups on some level. Working in groups is one of the cornerstones of the
methodology Dr Mooney used, not only for VE classes, but in academic subjects as well. This is how
children develop social skills and academic abilities, which can only be acquired by working together.
This goal is often not fully achieved in schools claiming to use group work, because it is simply not
enough to divide children into groups and give them work. In order to utilise the full potential of the
group effectively, and to nurture the atmosphere within the groups, we need to cover objectives,
group management and reflection. When the work is assigned it should be challenging enough to be
interesting for each member of the group and to encourage cooperation. It should be clear that
every member is needed to complete the task. Specific rules are set to help internalize certain
behaviour, such as that everybody gets the chance to express themselves (i.e. even if the child does
not speak for the first few months, he or she is always given the opportunity to do so and is made to
feel welcome to join in). Children should be aware of what strategies or techniques they are going to
Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
use (i.e. summarizing their opinions, seeking compromise, or dividing roles while working on the
project). Opportunity should also always be given for the children to reflect on their work together.
Dr Mooney uses group work as part of her class dynamics method, which she named The Basic Plan.
This seven-phase process is a complex and effective way to work with even a large number of
children or adults.
Some of the phases from the Basic Plan are also used in teacher training and during parent meetings.
Dr Mooney held training courses for her teachers and school staff twice a year or any time the
situation required. For this purpose she created a set of worksheets addressing topics that were
currently applicable within the school and the team (e.g. on fear, freedom, competition etc.). This
also gave the staff the chance to safely discuss the very basic issues of the goals and mission of their
school, but also issues that needed special attention. In today's practice, when working with teachers
this is still often the first time that the teachers of a single school have the opportunity to discuss
such issues and express their opinions and have the chance to hear and compare the opinions and
viewpoints of their colleges.
2
Competition
Dr Mooney says: “If you want a really inclusive environment the competition must go.” This is often a
very thorny issue and one of the major topics teachers often disagree upon, even within a single
school. Needless to say, by competition Dr Mooney does not mean sports or various academic
competitions for which children sign up voluntarily on the basis of their talents and interests, but the
process of comparing children, ranking them, pitting them against each other and bribing them with
good marks in order to motivate them to work. According to Dr Mooney such competition is harmful
to intellectual and personal development and strongly affects a child’s character.
Unfortunately, in many schools competition is promoted from a very young age and the fear of
evaluation is part of the experience. Natural curiosity is lost when students focus completely on
marks, tests, promotions etc. The stress continues in relation to pressure from parents, while marks
can become the very centre of the child's education and even family life. In some cases stress related
to academic performance, test results and assessments, can have extreme consequences such as
suicide, which is a global trend according to various studies and the statistics of the World Health
Organization. Despite the many destructive factors, schools involve in competitive education as in
the best practice to motivate students to learn.
One of the important conditions for encouraging children to stop comparing themselves to others
and accept themselves as they are is development of a sense of self worth. Dr Mooney says: ‘For an
inclusive school, the participation of all students should be taken for granted. You cannot run an
inclusive school without a participative atmosphere that expects every individual to make their own
contribution to the community and that, in turn, values each individual’s contribution no matter how
small or insignificant” (Mooney, 2019, p. 57).
One of the most challenging points in relation to removing competition from our schools is the idea
that competition (external motivation) is the only way to motivate children. The question of how to
bring the inner motivation mentioned above into practice arises. At Loreto Sealdah this was done by
shifting the emphasis to competing against oneself. This corresponds very well with various methods
of formative assessment. Comparing with others doesn't provide an accurate representation of the
acquired knowledge. It also limits the ability of children to estimate their own knowledge and skills.
Focusing on one’s own results and growth is therefore much more effective.
During her seminars Dr Mooney mentioned that her students regularly participated in regional or
national competitions such as Debate Clubs and were tested using standardised tests compulsory in
India. Competitions were an element of schoolwork and she did not consider this a problem. It was
important not to give the results more attention than needed, or to compare the children. This
Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
proves that a school based on values can succeed in a competitive world and its students acquire the
required knowledge and stamina.
At Loreto Sealdah, parents often argued that the community aspect is wonderful but impractical and
that the children would not be able to survive in life if they do not learn to compete. We often hear
exactly the same concerns from Czech teachers and parents. In fact this argument can be heard all
over the world where community-based education is promoted. For her work with parents and
teachers Dr Mooney created a worksheet on the topic of competition. It was given to teachers and
parents during meetings and teacher training courses, using the group work method in the same way
to working with students. Parents were questioned on what values they want their children to
acquire during their school years. The answers were then linked to the programmes designed to
strengthen these values. Parents also received a checklist comparing what was emphasised in the
system of competitive education versus the community-based system, what the results were and
what the final product is and what risks would be taken in their child’s education. This was all
discussed in small groups and analysed by the entire group and reflected in the school's vision.
Everyone had the opportunity to contribute and discuss. Conclusions were then made.
3
Evaluation and Assessment
Feedback for students is closely connected to the success of an inclusive school. In the case of Dr
Mooney, evaluation and assessment using marks and grades was required by the Indian educational
system. In order to offer more accurate feedback to students at Loreto Sealdah, evaluation consisted
of a combination of grades, marks and written feedback, given for academic and also non-academic
work. The grade indicated effort, while a mark was given for academic achievements. “If a child
receives a low mark for achievement accompanied by a high grade for effort, she has done her best
within her capabilities. For this, she should receive praise and encouragement, not belittling
comparisons to other students’ (Mooney, 2019, p. 19). ” Children were evaluated on the basis of
individual improvement, not by comparison on a scale. Evaluation was based on the level of hard
work, rather than talent since hard work is something everyone can achieve, but talent is given.
Students also received progress prizes for improving their performance during the year. This allowed
academically weak children who achieved the basic minimum through hard work to be awarded.
Children were also given appreciation cards to point out their exceptional behaviour during everyday
school life. The school had 1,400 students, where the older students also worked in larger groups
(“houses”) led by captains, who also participated in assessment of their peers at the end of year.
Today, many of these goals can be achieved by using formative assessment. It offers tools that
enable students to follow their own progress continually and it suggests ways to continue their
learning in future. This encourages inner motivation and establishes the habit of self-improvement
and understanding of the meaning of the work. The options for teacher assessment of students are
very flexible today. Teachers can decide which areas of the students’ development they will focus
and provide feedback on. This allows the teacher to reflect on the social skills, behaviour or individual
progress of a student. Self-evaluation and peer assessment is also practiced as this reinforces the
student’s inner responsibility and self worth.
4
Give me a moment of silence
So far we have talked about group work and the move towards community values. All this is part of
Dr Mooney's approach, which offers a complex structure for value education lessons as well as
academic subjects. We have mentioned that she divides the time dedicated to a particular topic into
seven phases in the Basic Plan method, where children work alone, in small groups and everyone
together. We would like to direct your attention to the phases that work with silence.
In general we encounter a lot of silence in our schools. There are different kinds of silence. There is
silence as a result of concentrated work, but also silence that is enforced because “a silent class is a
Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
good class”. Dr Mooney's opinion of this issue is: “If you want silence, go to the cemetery. This is a
school.” Yet she works with silence a lot.
The first phase gives everybody space to think on their own about the topic that is being introduced.
It provides certain guidelines and uses various topics to draw students into the work. This phase
enables students to enter into a discussion in groups and to prepare. Group work, discussion and
feedback given in front of the entire class is followed by individual work, which provides each student
with the time to process what has been said, analyse and decide what kind of action should be taken
in order to use newly acquired knowledge and skills. This phase fluently moves into the spiritual
phase, which is represented by prayer, meditation, breathing exercise or a singing at Dr Mooney's
school. In the Czech environment, where the spiritual background of the children varies, we use all
sorts of techniques, but the goal is to give children a quiet moment to reflect on what they have just
experienced and to integrate it. Every value education teacher should choose what is appropriate for
the kind of children he or she teaches. A simple breathing exercise and focusing attention inside the
body can be a powerful tool to begin with.
5
Value education classes
Dr Mooney incorporated Value education classes into the curriculum in order to discuss values,
attitudes and feelings and to bring values to everyday school life. This subject gave students the
opportunity to reflect on certain topics and develop their own value system. Dr Mooney and her
team wrote 10 textbooks titled We Are The World on this subject and the subject became an
important part of the school’s programme. This series covers the basic values connected to topics
relevant to different age groups of students, starting with students in the first grade. Each book has
16 to 17 lessons and the topics intensify in a spiral depending on the children’s age. Basic Plan phases
are used for the lessons. Value education classes can precede community service and projects to
discuss and plan the project together, and later can help to reflect on the work which was done using
the Basic plan again, interconnecting the hands-on experience on an intellectual and personal level.
6
Community service
“Go out, look around to see what needs to change, make a plan, and go and do it while the need is
there.”
SM Cyril Mooney
When working with values the school provides opportunity for this work via VE classes, through
everyday interaction within the school and through community service. During the class the children
can decide what kind of area they would like to work in and, after they acquire hands-on experience,
they reflect on it during the next VE class, understanding better why they do something, what the
impact is and finding motivation to continue their work. When starting community work, students,
teachers and leaders collaborated to survey the area, the needs within the community, the school's
resources and then decided on a project. This form of education was tangible and the school was
ready to simply change the rules in order to help a person. Community service gradually became an
inseparable part of the school’s curriculum, benefiting both the students and the recipients of their
help. It had rigid and practical rules that were followed.
Implementing community service in a school takes preparation, time and the understanding of its
benefits. Empowering and trusting children to carry out projects is extremely beneficial to their
intellectual and personal development, as well as to the school’s atmosphere and the community. In
the Czech Republic, the We Are The World curriculum created by Dr Mooney and her team for the VE
classes was adapted in 2017, when the first schools started to apply it. Three years later the focus
remains on the class work and the school’s atmosphere, but is slowly moving towards taking the
work outside as well. Dr Mooney mentions some of the benefits of community work in her book: “At
Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
Sealdah, every child at school, from class V onwards, participates in some form of community service,
whether helping to teach poor children in villages, aiding children in hidden domestic labour, tutoring
street children, or providing care for the abandoned elderly. Confronted with this poverty and
deprivation, they develop a new, more compassionate and understanding vision of the world”
During teacher training courses Dr Mooney had teachers analyse their attitudes and thought
processes and to reflect on them, because the teachers were the children’s primary models. In this
example, she is asking teachers to reflect on their approach to community service comparing two
approaches:
Cosmetic approach:
An additional activity that can be dropped at will.
Something done at the school’s convenience.
Involves small numbers of older children.
Children get material recognition for service (marks, certificates, etc.).
Children see those they serve as less than themselves.
Children see themselves as doing something great (Mooney, training materials).
Integral approach:
An integral part of the school curriculum just as important as Maths or Science or English.
Done at the convenience of those who are served.
Involving all children from the age of ten upwards.
Children work with the awareness of another’s needs, paid in joy, not marks.
Children form relationships and see the clients as equals.
Children see themselves as doing something essential (Mooney, training materials).
Experience from the Loreto Sealdah School
Example 1: ‘When we began the programme on the Eastern Bypass (slum area in Kolkata), I asked the
children to give up one day of their holidays. Each day, 20 students clambered onto a bus holding
a pack of 12 dice and a set of letter cards. By the end of the holidays, all the children in the
program could add, subtract, multiply, divide, and read their alphabet. The students were so
proud!’ (Mooney, 2019, p. 65).
Example 2: ‘Shagufta Parveen, daughter of a conservative Muslim family and student at Loreto
Sealdah Day School, found a young Hindu domestic servant burnt from the waist down after
having dropped a cauldron of boiling oil over himself. Shagufta brought him to the school by taxi,
sought out her class teacher to give the necessary information, and took him to the hospital
herself where she had him treated and given the appropriate medication. Afterwards, she took
him home and saw that he received his medicines regularly. At the time, Shagufta was only 13
years old. Yet she had been empowered through their work and lessons at school to successfully
handle a real-life situation of poverty and need’ (Mooney, 2019, p. 65).
The school as an organism
For the successful transformation of a school into an inclusive institution, the change must go beyond
classroom pedagogy. As well as applying the specific methodology, the vision, structures, policies and
practice within the whole school must be reflected upon and revised. Only when relationships and
values are in place, can an organisation such as a school transform into an organism, where people
help each other to reach a common goal.
The foreword by the authors in Dr Mooney's value education curriculum We are the world says: “We
hope that schools that use these books will see value education as a vital component of their
Jandejsková / Dr. Cyril Mooney and the application of her model of inclusive education …
curriculum…” (Mooney, 2017, p. 4). It not only means that value education, with its content and
forms of work, becomes part of the school educational plan and legal documents, but also that the
school is willing to make changes in its practices in order to incorporate these into the school’s whole
system of operation. The principal, the teachers and the school staff need to ask whether everyday
situations and the school’s atmosphere truly mirror the values they agreed on as the school’s core
values. This will allow the school to experiment with the time and space for VE lessons and
community work until a suitable scenario is found. Another step the school has to take is to create a
team of value education teachers who enjoy this work and find it important and meaningful.
Dr Mooney's educational model can be studied and adapted thanks to the materials she wrote for
teachers and principals and the many seminars she gave internationally. Current research also
involves interviews with former pupils and teachers, as well as mapping of the international impact
of her work. Her curriculum, tools and approach are being adapted in schools in the Czech Republic.
This is taking place through teacher training courses and through a growing community of value
education teachers who use this method and the We Are The World curriculum.2 Dr Mooney’s
inspiration and her influence demonstrate the great potential of each school as a crucial player in the
educational and social reform.
References
Mooney, C. (2019, October 20). Transforming schools for social justice & inclusive education.
Winnipeg:
Cyril
Mooney
Education.
Retrieved
from
1drv.ms/b/s!Aor-
D2L4iWvjzV2o775HaMghBj5Y
Mooney, C. (2017). We are the world 1−5. Winnipeg: Cyril Mooney Education, z. s.
Linda Jandejsková
Documentarist and founder of the Cyril Mooney school
2 You can learn more at www.cmeducation.org, or www.skolacyril.org.