Currículum Democrático y Educación Inclusiva en la Formación Inicial de Maestros de Educación Primaria.Análisis y prospección desde la perspectiva de los estudiantes

Abstract

This research addresses the development of inclusive schools through the improvement of initial teachers’ training. To that end, a theoretical framework was developed about the characteristics of initial teachers’ training in Spain and the ethical, theoretical, and practical challenges brought about by inclusive education. Among the different theories at the base of this research, the Theory of the Democratic Curriculum, the Realistic Pedagogy of Teachers’ Education, and the Theoretical Framework of Inclusive Conceptions are highlighted. The literature review about the progress towards inclusive education has been approached from the dialectic perspective of teachers’ socialization in its three stages: acculturation, professional socialization, and organizational socialization. Therefore, the phenomenon studied in this research is the relation between the reflexion about the democratic curriculum and the inclusive conceptions of teacher students in the Degree of Primary Education in the Autonomous and Complutense Universities of Madrid. According to this, five questions have been formulated: what theoretical and practical meanings the participants maintain about inclusive education; what frequency of practices related to the democratic curriculum is perceived by the participants during their initial teacher training; what connectivity routes exist between the participants’ lived experiences during their initial training and their inclusive conceptions; what educative experiences generate informed gestalts about inclusive education; and to what extend are the students aware of, and reflect on, their inclusive education learning. To answer these questions, from a pragmatic approach, a mixed method was designed with the aim of describing and reaching a deep understanding of the phenomenon. Firstly, in the quantitative strand, a questionnaire founded in various theories was developed, validating its content through cognitive interviews and experts’ judgement. Additionality, in the quantitative strand, a semi-structured interview was designed. Secondly, the questionnaire was applied to 204 participants that were finishing their Degree in Primary Education and, among those, four in deep interviews were developed. Thirdly, quantitative data was analysed through descriptive statistical analysis and non-probabilistic statistical hypothesis testing. At the same time, qualitative data was analysed through Grounded Theory from a critical discourse perspective. Lastly, a discussion about the results in both strands was performed. Finally, the main results indicate contradictory conceptions among the students about inclusive education, mainly when they are confronted with practical situations. In the same line, the results point that students perceived some practices of the democratic curriculum as infrequent or incoherent, highlighting reflection on rights, relevant knowledge, and teacher authority. Furthermore, it has been stated that reflective tutorials, participative methodologies, and the authority based on evidence, among others, have generated informed Gestalts about dialectic and transgressive inclusive education. Lastly, it is remarkable that DeLuca’s theoretical framework about inclusive education has been developed with curricular and pedagogical practices in the Spanish educative context which entails a solid reference framework to future research in this subject.