Percepción de docentes de Educación Básica sobre la inclusión de estudiantes con Trastorno del Espectro Autista

Abstract

The present work of investigation is stated in the field of Inclusive Education, and it contains specifically the process of inclusion of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from the teacher´s perception, this problem has been object of a wide research due to the implications of the practice and learning of students. Therefore, the main goal was to know the perceptions of teachers about the inclusion of boys and girls with ASD in the elementary and medium education level. The applied methodology was a qualitative focus and a phenomenological design, in which acted nine teachers from public schools from Cuenca city selected through homogeneous sampling, with whom a semi-structured interview was conducted and for the analysis of the information the steps of the thematic analysis were used. Among the found information was that, the interviewed teachers mention the insufficient support for the inclusion of students with ASD by the school and the professionals of the students counseling department (SCD). On the other hand, teachers have a strong difference in their language used with students in the classroom, because they refer to the children with ASD and “the other ones” or “the normal ones” who are the rest of the students. Also, it was found out that teachers who try to include ASD students, they apply a differentiated teaching based in preferences and likes, make adaptations in the activities and assessment, interchange strategies with other colleagues and conduct training and research about ASD.