Equal Opportunities in an Inclusive and Sustainable Education System: An Explanatory Model

Marta Medina-García, Luis Doña-Toledo and Lina Higueras-Rodríguez
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Marta Medina-García: Department of Didactics and School Organization, Faculty of Education, University of Almería, 04120 La Cañada, Almería, Spain
Luis Doña-Toledo: Marketing and Market Research Department, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Lina Higueras-Rodríguez: Department of Didactics and School Organization, Faculty of Education, University of Almería, 04120 La Cañada, Almería, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: Equal opportunities is an objective to be achieved in a sustainable society, as formulated by various sustainable development objectives. Inclusive education refers to the right of all people to education, guaranteeing the presence, participation, and progress of all students and, above all, equal opportunities. However, today, it is a dual and controversial issue, as it appears among the strategies and objectives planned at international and European levels, but its application and real development is still far from being a right with guarantees. Moreover, the concept of integration remains in most areas and many education policies. Therefore, the objective of this work is to establish which integration and inclusion measures favor equal opportunities. The study offers, as a major novelty, the results of empirical research, which provides a scientific framework to this process of equal opportunities. It is approached from the perspective of teaching staff with a sample of 133 professionals. The results are analyzed through factorial analysis and multiple linear regression. The results show that the aspects related to inclusion (measures of attention to diversity, high knowledge about inclusion, and adapting the system to inclusion) have a significant positive effect. The integration of students reduces equal opportunities in a statistically significant way. The results are of interest for educational policies and for decision-making and strategies to achieve sustainability and inclusion in the school environment.

Keywords: inclusion; integration; sustainability; equal opportunities; teachers; education systems; disability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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