Educational inclusion and equity in Latin America: An analysis of the challenges

• Published in: Prospects (Paris) 2020-11, Vol.49 (3-4), p.169-186
• Main Authors: Calderón-Almendros, Ignacio, Ainscow, Mel, Bersanelli, Silvia, Molina-Toledo, Pamela
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Accommodations (Disabilities); Barriers; Consciousness Raising; Education; Educationally Disadvantaged; Equal Education; Family Attitudes; Foreign Countries; Inclusion; Inclusive education; International and Comparative Education; Latin Americans; Open File; Stakeholders; Student Attitudes; Teacher Attitudes
• ISSN: 0033-1538; 1573-9090
• DOI: 10.1007/s11125-020-09501-1

This article draws on its authors’ experiences of engaging with the narratives of communities in Latin America implicated in the promotion of inclusion and equity in education. It illustrates how the voices of students, teachers, and families can throw light on the challenges involved. In particular, the article shows how their conditions, difficulties, achievements, fears, and hopes can provide a better understanding of their complex realities and help to shape theories of change. Incorporating the views of different stakeholders, the article focuses on the process of enabling people to become critically conscious about their realities, at the same time developing theoretical tools to become more inclusive in their thinking. It argues that inclusive education is a radical political project that needs to be closer to the feelings and knowledge of oppressed people. This means that we must construct new narratives that encourage people to make their own challenges; this, in turn, can contribute to change at the system level. The article proposes a framework that can be used to review the situation in other countries and offers recommendations as to how to introduce it.