What are their thoughts about inclusion? Beliefs of faculty members about inclusive education

Abstract

Higher education institutions are required to promote inclusion. In this context, faculty members play an important role, which can be limited by their beliefs and prejudices. The aim of this study was to explore the level of knowledge and beliefs declared by faculty members about inclusive education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 119 faculty members of all areas of knowledge from 10 Spanish public universities. The results confirm that inclusive education is a term unknown to a large proportion of faculty members and acquires different meanings among those faculty members who have delved into its knowledge. The beliefs recorded in this investigation generated three categories, among which there was the persistent influence of the student-centred deficit model. The conclusions include recommendations for adapting continuous training to the fields of knowledge and delving into a shared debate about the meaning and implication of inclusive education in higher education. These recommendations can be useful not only in the advance of inclusive education in the Spanish university system but also in the rest of the European Higher Education Area, whose universities share common academic frameworks.