Duration: 2020 – 2022
Principal Researcher
Esperança Ribeiro
Team Members
Sara Felizardo
Emília Martins
Maria João Amante
Francisco Mendes
Rosina Fernandes
Ana Paula Cardoso
Belmiro Rego
Ana Isabel Silva
Paula Xavier
Leandra Cordeiro
Ernestina Silva
Sandra Antunes
Susana Amante
Hélia Pinto
Carla Freire
Marta Fonseca
Graça Seco
Maria João Santos
Isabel Pereira
Jesús Simo
Jesús Saorín
Maria Domingues
Sara Lourenço
Funding
Caixa Geral de Depósitos and Politécnico de Viseu
The contemporary agenda on diversity calls on civil society for the social inclusion of people with some psychosocial and / or cultural fragility. Along the same lines, in the educational field, the background is inclusive education, which sustains the web of interactions and learning in school contexts. In this regard, the discourse of the various national and international entities has been abundant and has been expressed in declarations, conventions and regulations that enhance the inclusion agenda. In this context, the access of students with developmental difficulties / Special Needs (SN) to Higher Education (HE) is growing in different countries (Seale, 2017). Concurrently, Portugal has followed the same phenomenon, as highlighted by the Opinion of the National Council of Education (CNE, 2017), so it is necessary to give voice to students with SN as well as to their peers without SN, since they can help overcome the barriers to the inclusion of students with SN in HE. The ID & I Include project "Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education" has as general objectives:
i) to analyze the perceptions of students with NE about the various phases of life and key moments, with a particular focus on their experiences in ES, barriers, facilitators and expectations regarding their post-school/ professional and social transition;
ii) to perceive the perspectives and attitudes of students without NE on the inclusion of their peers with NE, namely on their participation in the peer relationship dynamics and with the teachers;
iii) to assess aspects of developmental and relational nature (self-concept, self-Determination and well-being) and the social and educational support networks of students;
iv) to know the opinion of the students with and without SN about the teaching-learning processes (difficulties, needs, methodologies
and pedagogical strategies more effective);
v) to pursue actions of a socio-educational, pedagogical and relational nature, promoting the development (differentiated and collaborative strategies, mentoring, promotion of personal and social competences) of SN
students.