Knowing inclusion or disability: analysis of its importance and impact on the education system

Abstract

Inclusive education refers to the right of all persons to education, ensuring the presence, participation and progress of all students. However, at present, this is a dual and controversial issue, as it appears among the strategies and objectives planned at international and European level, but its application and real development is still far from being a right with guarantees. The objectives that we propose with this work are: to review the state of the art on the measure of inclusion in the teaching profession and to develop a causal model that allows us to know which factors are significant in achieving true inclusion. The method used is a multivariate analysis through exploratory factor analysis and a multiple linear regression model. The sample is made up of 133 teachers from the Andalusian territory. The results show that knowledge about disability is not significant to achieve an inclusive system, but that the decisive factor is knowledge about inclusion. Also positive are the measures to improve the teaching staff and the integration measures as a previous step to inclusion. The conclusions of this work provide education managers and teachers with information on those aspects which need to be improved in order to achieve one of the objectives of sustainable development, namely, inclusive education.