Special education policies in Chile (2005-2015): Continuities and changes

Abstract

Our objective is to present the policy of special education in Chile, discuss the conceptual changes from the perspective of inclusive education. For the development of the discussion work with documentary analysis. The documentary reading is based in identifying ideas and concepts present in the political discourse. The examination of the national documentation focused specifically on the changes perceived in the Chilean special education policy in a ten-year interval (2005 – 2015). In Chile, special education maintains the specific knowledge character of its teachers and of students’ own needs. New curricular indications refer to the universal design associated with the national curriculum with individualized plans when “it is necessary”. On the other hand, the private management of special education is maintained through non-public and non-regular institutions. It still maintains the terminology “with special educational needs, related to the definition of the beneficiary group of its policies as “transitory” and “permanent”, with tendency to the greater presence of the transitory in the regular schools and the permanent ones in the special schools.