International Congress Inclusive Education in the Mission of Fe y Alegría
In 2013, the International Federation of Fe y Alegría Congress XLIV was held in Brazil. We present an abstract summary of the Final Document of the International Congress XLIV “Inclusive Education in the Mission of Fe y Alegría.”
Inclusion should not be seen merely as a way to treat people with different capacities, rather, refers to an appreciation of cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, social diversity, learning styles, abilities, gender, among others, as an enrichment of the educational community and the reality in full. All of this requires a profound transformation of visions impacting a changing of attitudes and concrete actions: methodologies, education systems, infrastructure and educational communities, which respond to diversity.
What does inclusive education mean?
In pedagogy, inclusive education is a concept that attempts to better address one of the main features of our societies, which is diversity. It is a term that aims to overcome the term integration, as it is not the students who must adapt to the educational system, but it must the educational system which must adapt to them: the new education system should be open to diversity, understanding it as an asset without pretending to homogenize. UNESCO proposes the inclusion as the fourth and most important step on the ladder that goes from exclusive education to inclusive education. Historically it has demonstrated a long process that started from the deep exclusion, which then moves on to segregation or formation of ghettos in which all people were confined and considered different. Then the way to integration was achieved by creating “special” spaces to integrate those not adapted to the dominant educational system. But what you want is to get a true inclusion, creating a new culture of openness to diversity, in which equity and quality are inseparable.
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