Evaluación de la aplicación del índice de inclusión en la Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

The recognition of the right to access, reside and complete higher education without any type of discrimination, represents a move towards a model of sustainable and inclusive education. Inclusive education refers to the process of reducing the barriers that limit the presence and participation of students, trying to eliminate all kinds of ways that lead to exclusion. Universities, although diverse in their priorities, need to move towards an education model based on the principles of inclusive education. The purpose of this study consisted in identifying the perception of teachers and students about cultures, policies, and inclusive practices of the Faculty of Psychology, of the University of Cuenca in Ecuador. For this matter, a sample consisting of 241 students and 44 teachers was used. The perception of docents and students regarding inclusive education was collected using the guide Index for Inclusion and the data were processed by descriptive and inferential non-parametric statistics. The results revealed that both, students and teachers, agree on the three evaluated dimensions. It was found that the dimension to create inclusive cultures is the highest valued, followed by the dimension to develop inclusive practices, and finally, the least valued was the dimension to elaborate on inclusive policies. Moreover, it is important to point out that on average 8.4% of the items of the Index of Inclusion presented unusual values due to lack of information, which gives rise to the proposal of conducting a validity study of the construct of the Index for Inclusion.