EL ÍNDICE DE INCLUSIÓN COMO HERRAMIENTA PARA LA MEJORA ESCOLAR
Education, quality, effectiveness and education improvement are worldwide well-discussed and well-researched subjects. The index for inclusion is an instrument used as a guide when supporting schools in the process of educative inclusion and, because of its characteristics, it could work as an enhancer of educational improvement. unesco proposes corresponding adaptations for each country, since the results obtained in the United Kingdom, and other European nations, has been very satisfactory. Following this guideline, this research aims at presenting the construct and content validity of the Index for Inclusion: improving learning and involvement at schools, in order to adapt it to Mexican schools. This is an exploratory prospective study that provides the very first validity evidence and that, based on a strategy of assessment carried out by professional qualified professionals, special education experts, aims at refining the measure instrument, with the intention of adapting it to the socio-cultural and educative Mexican situation. Finally, we can also consider that the study has an explicative dimension, since it tries to analyze the influence of certain variables, or to establish an association between these variables, on the profiles of the opinions of the experts. Despite the fact that results show an agreement in the opinions of those who have assessed the instrument in every aspect, we have identified disagreements in sections and indicators. For these, we provide adaptation alternatives.
Validación de la escala de autoadscripción inclusiva en docentes secundarios de Chile
Resumen El estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar la estructura interna y la fiabilidad del instrumento que fue construido para medir aceptacion y disposicion de la inclusion escolar, conceptualizada como la autoadscripcion inclusiva. La metodologia comprendio un diseno instrumental, con una muestra representativa y aleatoria de docentes secundarios de la provincia de Nuble, Chile. El numero de participantes fue de 548 docentes de ambos sexos, con edades entre 28 y 60 anos. El instrumento utilizado fue una adaptacion del Indice de Inclusion de Booth y Ainscow. Dentro de los resultados se distinguen seis dimensiones: ensenanza para el aprendizaje de todos, construyendo comunidad inclusiva, diseno curricular para la diversidad, politicas escolares para la diversidad, practicas de inclusion en la escuela y desarrollo de cultura para la inclusion; estas dimensiones se agruparon en tres nuevos factores, nombrados practicas pedagogicas, culturas inclusivas y politicas inclusivas. El nivel de confiabilidad del instrumento fue alto (α = .954)
Special education, inclusion and democracy
Initially, it is pointed out that adherents of a psycho‐medical perspective often suggest exclusive solutions to special educational dilemmas and that such theorizing has been heavily attacked in past decades. However, it is argued that opposition of the psycho‐medical understanding of special education runs the risk of blurring differences between researchers and practitioners who are more positive about inclusion. One aim of this paper is to disentangle different perspectives on special education and different notions of inclusion among those positive to the idea of inclusion. A second aim is to argue for the necessity of situating the discussion about inclusion and special education within a discussion about democracy and the role of social science within it. Such a discussion seems even more important, given the range of positions discerned in the first part of the paper. In the concluding section of the paper, a proposal is presented for how special education, democracy and inclusion could be related to one another and for the role of research within these relationships. An important argument advanced is that the issue of who is to decide is analytically prior to what is to be decided with regard to inclusive practices.