The Future of Education
Ideal vs Real: Is Legislating Enough to Include?
Maria José Camacho, Universidade da Madeira (Portugal)
Mónica Teixeira, Direção Regional de Educação (Portugal)
Abstract
The United Nations Conference on Education has been establishing and patenting, through different appeals, recommendations, challenges, and international treaties, indelible and permanent invitations, addressed to those responsible for the educational systems of each country, to trigger and
generalize the adoption of effective and transformative educational practices, leading to the understanding and proactive acceptance of the diversity and heterogeneity presented by students, an undeniable reality and increasingly present in the learning communities and schools of this 21st century.
The building block of an inclusive school must be established by offering an educational ideal that, aiming at respect for differences, can spread hope and the conviction that all students, regardless of their origins, conditions, and difficulties, have the right to experience an educational process that
allows them to understand and act upon the world. These assumptions facilitate the cultivation of closeness among human beings, enabling them to be sufficiently close to one another, united and engaged in the acquisition of diverse skills and knowledge, and capable of contributing to the construction of a plural, fair, and supportive society (Meirieu, 1995).
To this end, we sought to understand, through a case study (Flick, 2009), the perception of special education teachers regarding the operationalization of the guidelines for inclusive education, published in recent years and currently in force. To this end, we applied a questionnaire to special education teachers working in Portuguese schools, which led us to highlight the strengths and weaknesses between these guidelines and the reality of practices inherent to inclusion processes, which could constitute a starting point for a reflection that brings the intentions of political decision-makers
closer to the praxis of educational actors.
Keywords: inclusive school; diversity; teachers; regulations; praxis
REFERENCES
[1] Flick, U. (2009). Introdução à pesquisa qualitativa (J.E.Costa, Trad.). Artmed.
[2] UNESCO (2019). Manual para garantir inclusão e equidade na educação. http://unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en)
