Abstract
This research contributes to the knowledge and understanding of some aspects of the professional practice of primary education teachers in the Region of Murcia (Spain), and its possible effect on the creation of situations of educational exclusion. For this purpose, an instrument called EPREPADI-1 (Scale of Perception of Primary Education Teachers on their Training and Professional Practice in relation to Pupils with Disabilities) has been developed. The design and structure of the instrument includes important aspects that seek to highlight teachers’ views and knowledge of educational legislation (international, national and regional), their views on nomenclatures (such as those of persons with disabilities and inclusive education), as well as their assessment of the use of language of denial in relation to pupils with lower functional performance. Furthermore, after the statistical tests carried out for the validation of the scale (Kendall’s W test and Cronbach’s Alpha), values were obtained that give the instrument excellent validity and reliability (both for the group of experts and also for the pilot group), which is why its use and application is recommended.
Highlights
When the day comes when the only thing that I will be able to say about a person with a disability is what they have achieved in their life and not what they have not been able to achieve, it will be the moment when their reality will no longer be biased
On the other hand, when we look at some data provided by other research on the perception of teachers (Colmenero et al, 2019; Ruíz et al, 2019 -among others), we can see a biased opinion in which the administration is still given a large part of the responsibility, highlighting that -in general-teachers do not have sufficient capacity to act in favour of these students
For education to become inclusive, there must be a transformation in the understanding that still exists towards students who are discriminated against because of their functional performance, since it is a question of children with low functional performance sharing the classroom or common school spaces with the rest of the student body, Rather, it is absolutely necessary to carry out a paradigm shift in which the core training of teachers considers that it is just as important to transform their methodologies so that their students with lower functional performance can participate and learn, as it is for the rest of the students that they meet and share with these students who are in a situation of disability
Summary
When the day comes when the only thing that I will be able to say about a person with a disability is what they have achieved in their life and not what they have not been able to achieve, it will be the moment when their reality will no longer be biased (either because their legs cannot walk, their eyes cannot see or their cognitive power is not fully developed - among many other circumstances). The last decade has been marked by social and political transformations that have advanced towards safeguarding the rights of these people (García, and Ariza, 1990; Echeíta and Duk Homad, 2008; Carbonell, 2013 and Cornejo, 2016); a clear example of this has been the ratification -by Spain in 2008- of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ONU, 2006) In this sense, throughout history, socio-political changes have been redefining -permanentlythe life of those people who are in a situation of vulnerability due to having a low functional performance; and likewise, and with regard to this lower performance, all these people have been marked -chronologically- by numerous and very different conceptualisations (retarded, disabled, handicapped, person with disability or person with functional diversity, among others). A scenario is drawn where those who have a low functional performance are relegated to the shadow of others who decide for them (either the State -at the legislative level- or their legal guardians)
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