Barreras Culturales para la Inclusión: Políticas y Prácticas de Integración en Chile

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze conceptions and practices involving integration in Chilean mandatory education, present both in the design of educational policies as well as in the translation into local practices. A qualitative design involving was used, which involved a discourse analysis of the Chilean educational policy on integration, and an empirical study in three public municipal schools of one commune through active interviews to local actors and non-participatory observations. Data were analyzed through pragmatic discourse analysis. Results. The Chilean educational policy is hybrid since it advocates for inclusion from within the logic of human rights, but prescribes a model of integration with a strong psycho-medical emphasis, which operates through individual diagnosis and pedagogical treatment on behalf of the special education teacher. Integration is also presented as an optional and complementary professional service through the form of school integration projects (SIP) financed through individual vouchers. Local discursive practices translate this policy as a policy for the “SIP children” that, those who participate in these projects and, therefore, have a diagnosis and receive additional voucher. These children are labeled, segregated, and discriminated. Responsibility for learning outcomes falls mainly in the hands of the special ed. teacher, whose work is encapsulated. Coordination between special ed. teachers and classroom teachers is difficult. Teachers believe that children´s learning possibilities depends on the level of disability and family support, a belief that draws the schools away from its pedagogical function. Discussion. From the viewpoint of inclusion, these practices and conceptions create a cultural barrier, since they situate the possibilities of educational change outside the educational scope and outside the regular classroom. This places at risk the possibilities for constructing an educational system with equity.

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