Inclusion of middle school students with intellectual disabilities. Tensions and contradictions

Abstract

The present paper reports a piece of a broader research on the meanings secondary school teachers construct around students with intellectual disabilities and its caring, as well as the difficulties or tensions they face during their daily teaching practice for the purposes of a policy in educational inclusion in Mexico. This study was developed within a qualitative perspective with semi-structured interviews and its findings reflect the contradictions between political discourses and daily life events in schools. These contradictions put teachers in tension because they mean inclusion as an imposition from educational authorities, a situation that little favors the generation of a collaborative and inclusive culture within schools; on the contrary, this situation has provoked teachers’ resistance and simulation practices in the care of students with intellectual disabilities.