Inclusive educational practices in early childhood education: An integrative review of the literature

Abstract

Inclusive Education advocates equity of opportunity for all students in all stages of education, including Early Childhood Education. The knowledge and implementation of practices with evidence of efficacy in everyday school life can promote the realization of the principles of Inclusive Education. Thus, the objective of this review was to analyze, in the scientific literature, inclusive educational practices within the process dimension for Early Childhood Education that present evidence of effectiveness and/or efficacy in the last decade. The Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), PsycINFO, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) e Web of Science (WoS) were consulted between 2009 and 2019, in search of empirical research, carried out in the school context, describing direct interventions with groups of students and involving the target children of Special Education. From the 274 articles extracted, nine were analyzed after analysis of eligibility criteria. The articles were classified in terms of level of evidence. Next, the practices with evidence of effectiveness described in the articles were categorized as transversal, antecedent to activities, posterior and performed during the activities (n=23). Although the analyzed practices seem relatively simple to be implemented in school routines, as a whole they show the importance of planning, organizing and conducting school activities, in order to promote concrete opportunities for children with any disability to fully develop their potential.