Inclusive education in higher education: Proposal for a model of care in Ecuador

Abstract

The advances of inclusive education in the university are implemented in an irrelevant way, despite the provisions of the policies and their foundations, for a university that guarantees in all students the learning, skills and competences they need. To try, the Social Model of Inclusive Education is proposed; which allows identifying its management, by calculating the effectiveness index, uses the cause-effect structure among three variables: i) Policies in inclusive education, ii) conditions of students and iii) attitudes towards students. The indicator variables are derived by developing items that allow the collection of information, formalizing a mathematical model of structural equations. The model was applied in Ecuador, at the National University of Loja, showing that the management effectiveness index in inclusive education is 72.8%, related to a work of greater weight in variables such as: i) Policies in inclusive education: Equal opportunities, support from the university, principles, capacities, comprehensiveness, development and new approach; ii) conditions of the students: political affiliation, judicial past, diversity, identity, learning problems, disability and superior endowment; and iii) attitudes towards diversity: Curriculum and assessment of learning. Concluding, on the importance of inclusive education.