[Inclusive education policy: perceptions of managers about the process of changes in Higher Education Institutions].

Abstract

This is a qualitative descriptive exploratory study, conducted in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) which offers Nursing course, in Joao Pessoa-PB. The study aimed to understand the concept of managers about the need for organizational changes to attend customers with special needs. Four managers participated in the study. A semi-structured interview with guiding questions was used to collect information and to interpret the data we used the method of discourse analysis based on Fiorin. It was noticed that the managers have a concern to meet the demands of inclusive policies, including the adequacy of physical spaces and the pedagogy adopted to meet the students' needs. However, some of them admitted to have little knowledge on how to deal with students with special needs and also mentioned that the institutions do not have an efficient and logistic work which can meet the current legislation of inclusion. We concluded that the process of structural and pedagogical changes is built in a slow and gradual way and it requires an involvement of qualified managers who are committed to execute the policies of inclusion of customers with special needs in a civil and legal way.