How do Children Value Educational Inclusion? Opinions from Primary Schools

Abstract

In the international context, the behaviors of educational exclusion hide in an atmosphere of apparent inclusion with multiple statements, policies, protocols, and programs. Student voice is a powerful tool for raising awareness of diversity issues and ways of learning in schools. This research addresses the reality of classrooms from the inclusive perspective for the first time in the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain). The authors used a quantitative, descriptive-exploratory methodology, through the application of the Index for Inclusion questionnaire (Booth & Ainscow, 2015) to a sample of 211 Primary Education students. The results showed the students' moderately good perception of inclusion at their educational centers. Their most positive perception was connected with inclusive culture and policies, rather than with their enforcement. Age was a variable of great importance in this study, as it explained more than 50 % of the Index results. Younger children were the ones who rated the Index more positively when compared to older children. All this demonstrates their ability, from an early age, to think critically about their immediate environment and the injustices that occur in it. It is necessary to give students a voice, as it is a key tool in raising awareness of diversity-related problems, and in the configuration of learning in classrooms.