From Equity to Difference: Educational Legal Frames and Inclusive Practices in Argentina

CARLOS SKLIAR ; INÉS DUSSEL

Inclusive Education. Examining Equity on Five Continents

Harvard University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2011; p. 185 - 200

In this chapter we analyze the dimensions in which equity issues are played out in Argentina´s education system, and discuss how these deployments affect the foundations, practices, and realities of inclusive education in Argentina. We analyze in the first place what we call the legal frame, taking as a reference point the National Law of Education (No. 26.026/2006) and some city regulations. We then move to the consideration of some quantitative and qualitative data from the World Report of the United Nations, The Right to Education of People with Disabilities (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2004), that offers a portrait of the educational situation of children with disabilities. Third, we bring in additional evidence provided by teachers’ statements in focus groups that discussed the images circulating in educational settings about students who are different, about diversity and difference, and the value attributed to living together in schools (see Skliar, 2006). Our main interest is to establish the kinds of perceptions that emerge out of inclusive education programs and experiences that aimed to transform highly unequal educational environments into more equitable settings in the last decade.