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

Czech version/Česká verze

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.

95

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

96

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

97

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

98

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

99

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

100

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

101

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”

(Mooney, 2019, p. 65).

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

102

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.

Table of Contents

Transforming

schools for social justice & inclusive education,

(2019)