Rationalities in the management of an inclusive education policy in the secondary schools of Valencia

Abstract

In this paper we present partial findings of a case study on the application of the Valencian government's policy on inclusive education and its consequences for equity in the secondary education institutes (IESs) of the city of Valencia and its metropolitan area, attending to their possible translations in secondary education organizations, especially in ESO, where tensions between inclusion and segregation are extreme. We structure the study in three levels: the formulation and dissemination of the policy, in charge of the administration; the organizational and curricular fit in the IESs, with the reference of the management of the high schools; and the management in practice of inclusive education measures and programs by guidance eepartments. The study is based on documentary analysis and on in-depth interviews with representatives of these three levels. The main results of the work reveal the coexistence of bureaucratic rationality with strategic responses from the schools, which show a different articulation of structural and cultural aspects in organizations and different expressions of the effects in terms of equity of both politics and practices.