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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.6
Publication Date: June 25, 2020
DOI:10.14738/assrj.76.8510.
Tome, J. M. S. (2020). Special Educational Needs: Do We Know How To Educate? Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(6) 587-
599.
Special Educational Needs: Do We Know How To Educate?
José Manuel Salum Tome
(PHd) Doctor en Educación
ABSTRACT
This article reports the results that its objective is to analyze the
evolution of political discourse in Chile on special educational needs, as
well as to analyze the relationship of the discourse with the main public
policy initiatives regarding legislation, fiscal budget and direct
executive action. It can be seen that it is possible to identify important
changes in the use of the main concepts, emphasis and discussions
associated with the promotion of inclusive education. In addition, there
is growing interest in the issue of diversity, both nationally and
internationally, which is expressed in increasingly specific public policy
initiatives to promote inclusive education. However, there are still gaps
and gaps between political discourse and policy initiatives, as well as
between the approach of public policies in Chile and the state of art of
the international discussion on the subject.
Keywords: Special Educational Needs - Integration- Inclusion - Public
Policies.
INTRODUCTION
The recognition of the value of the diversity of the people that make up our society grows more and
more, however, much remains to be done in relation to how to attend to said diversity. Equalizing
opportunities, addressing problems that hinder learning, and addressing the needs of all students
are difficult challenges to meet, especially when it is common and accepted practice to label,
separate, distinguish, or discriminate, therefore, to achieve a school. inclusive is essential to build
an inclusive society, that is, a truly democratic and equitable society (Juárez, Comboni and Garnique,
2010). This article reports the results of a study that aimed to analyze the evolution of public policy
discourse on Special Educational Needs in Chile from the year 2000 onwards, identifying the main
concepts, emphasis and evolution of the political debate. Also, he analyzed the correspondence
between political discourse, action and public investment from the point of view of their distinctions
and orientations. This analysis allowed us to appreciate how some of the most important policy
instruments of the administrations have been implemented in the field of education, effectively
taking charge of the integration and inclusion of students with special educational needs.
A review was made of different sources referring to government policies that have focused their
attention on Special Educational Needs in Chile, hereinafter SEN, and then made a comparison with
the main orientations of international discourse and debate on the subject through a information
hermeneusis. to review and systematize public policies in the field of SEN in Chile. However, the
importance that the topic of inclusion has acquired in the educational and social sphere has been
key in politics in recent decades.
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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.76.8510 588
Tome, J. M. S. (2020). Special Educational Needs: Do We Know How To Educate? Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(6) 587-599.
This study set out to evaluate the importance and emphasis given by the political authorities of the
last administrations to grant opportunities to all citizens without distinction. It is an issue that has
been gaining ground in the context of new demands for equality and the recognition of historically
marginalized social groups. Consequently, this work contributes to a topic that has been little
addressed in the literature and offers an overview of what is done and said in Chile in relation to
SEN. This in order to position a topic of growing interest and relevance in the country.
In addition, the level of correspondence of politics in Chile with the international discourse on the
subject is addressed, thus helping to examine possible differences and enrich the current national
approach to take on the challenges and contribute to the discussion on regulations, behaviors or
practices that they promote inclusion, participation and learning without discrimination.
Therefore, Inclusive Education in its origins and for a long time, maintained an elitist character,
based on the exclusion of that population that did not meet the requirements for education. When
the systems began to incorporate previously excluded groups of the population, they were generally
structured in dual systems, which, recognizing the right of all people to education, established
different policies for groups in situations of inequality. In this stage of development, based on
segregation, special schools emerged, establishments that only served students with certain SEN,
maintaining the distinctions. Then, some measures aimed at school integration were developed,
based on a spatial and physical integration of the students, but not substantive. Thus, little by little,
approaches and orientations towards inclusion in school began to transform, increasingly
incorporating the participation of people, regardless of their characteristics (Escribano and
Martínez, 2013).
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
Contemporary democratic societies are characterized by their increasing levels of openness to
diversity, which constitutes enormous wealth for dealing with social complexity. The educational
policies of recent years in Chile have incorporated issues related to integration and diversity, the
concepts that inspire these policies are associated with equity, social justice and democracy, social
demands that require education to take charge. In this way, problems such as exclusion have been
incorporated into policies that attempt to correct discrimination problems (Infante, Matus,
Vizcarra, 2011).
This study collaborates in this direction, because it allows evaluating and evaluating, through
documentation and empirical evidence, the discourse of the last Chilean governments in the field of
education for all, contrasting their orientation with the international debate and identifying some
gaps and deficits that constitute challenges in this matter.
We understand by Special Educational Needs (SEN), the set of pedagogical measures that are put in
place to compensate for the difficulties that a student presents when accessing the curriculum that
corresponds to him by age. These difficulties are superior to the rest of the students, for various
reasons: disabilities, serious conduct disorders, high intellectual abilities or late integration into the
educational system.
Measures can be permanent or temporary, adaptations of access to the curriculum or significant
curricular adaptations in various areas of the curriculum. According to the current law on
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.7, Issue 6, June-2020
educational matters, at present, we speak of students with Specific Needs for Educational Support
when we refer to all the previous casuistry and differentiating with the term NEE only those
students with disabilities or conduct disorders.
We all have educational needs, but some students or people have special educational needs. These
have a dynamic character, since they appear between the characteristics of the subject and what the
study system or program provides. The SEN are not always related to a learning difficulty, they can
also occur because the student grasps and learns too quickly, so he needs to be advancing and
learning more things than others. In both cases, curricular adaptations must be made and the
appropriate work methodology or strategy must be sought to satisfy those special educational
needs.
Students with special educational needs are those who require, for a period of their schooling or
throughout it, certain specific educational supports and care derived from disability or serious
conduct disorders. This definition is updated with the new Instructions of March 8, 2017, in which
this is referred to as: one that requires, for a period of his or her schooling, specific attention, derived
from different grades and types of personal capacities of a physical, mental, cognitive or sensory
nature.
Intellectual disability implies a series of limitations in the skills that the person learns to function in
their daily life and that allow them to respond to different situations and places. People with
intellectual disabilities have a harder time learning, understanding and communicating than others.
Intellectual disability is not always permanent, that is, nor for life, with therapeutic work and
appropriate care from the appropriate specialists, great progress can be made and has an important
impact on the life of the person and her family.
Intellectual giftedness is defined by Joseph Renzulli (1994) as the possession of three basic sets of
closely related characteristics and with equal emphasis on each:
• A higher than average intellectual capacity, in relation to both general and specific skills.
• A high degree of dedication to tasks referring to perseverance, resistance, knowledge, show
more effectiveness in the use of metacognitive processes.
• They have a superior ability to solve highly complex problems, applying the knowledge they
already possess and their own reasoning skills.
• They have a great ability to abstract, conceptualize, synthesize, as well as to reason, argue
and ask.
• They present great curiosity and a constant desire about the why of things, as well as a wide
variety of interests.
• They have a high memory.
• They present an early maturational development and high in perceptual-motor, attention,
communication and language skills.
The cases of "high intellectual abilities" (gifted) are also considered as people with specific needs
for educational support, since in this case, the curricular contents tend to be easy or even boring for
these students, who have greater capacity.
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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.76.8510 590
Tome, J. M. S. (2020). Special Educational Needs: Do We Know How To Educate? Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(6) 587-599.
Therefore, the following are proposed as solutions:
• Acceleration: The student is advanced a course, to compensate her greater capacity.
Sometimes more than one acceleration is necessary.
• Curricular adaptation: The student works in programs to complement their normal studies.
Likewise, they are considered as the modifications that are made on the ordinary curriculum,
necessary to respond to the learning need of each student.
Just as there is a special educational need (SEN) associated with intellectual disability, there are
more examples of this:
• SEN associated with physical disability
• SEN associated with hearing impairment
• SEN associated with visual impairment
• SEN associated with autism spectrum disorders
• SEN associated with serious conduct disorders
• SEN associated with serious developmental disorders
• SEN associated with communication disorders
• SEN associated with attention deficit disorders with or without hyperactivity
• SEN associated with other mental disorders
Integration is a right, not a privilege, Declaration on World Disability Day, (1997). Special
Educational Needs are related to the special aids and resources that must be provided to certain
students who, for different reasons, face barriers to their learning and participation process. These
students can be street children, working children, with some type of disability, from indigenous
populations.
It is essential to understand the concept of Special Educational Needs (SEN) and identify the value
that it has acquired over time. Although it has a long history, it only recently appears as a matter of
formal concern of the State, coming to occupy an important place in political discourse and in the
design of emerging intersectoral programs.
The notion of “Special Educational Needs” appears developed in the field of education for the first
time in 1978, in the Warnock Report (1978). This report comes after a research committee chaired
by Mary Warnock was asked to "... analyze educational benefits for children and young people with
disabilities in England, Scotland and Wales, considering the medical aspects of their needs and the
appropriate means to their preparation to enter the world of work; estimate the most effective use
of resources for such purposes and make recommendations ”(Warnock, 1978).
This report is considered one of the most important milestones in the change to a contemporary
notion of special education, broadening its focus, it not only considers the students who present
learning difficulties with a personal disability, but a significant number of students that require
special attention due to a multiplicity of circumstances. Thus, a new conception of SEN arises, which
Warnock defines as follows: a “student with special educational needs refers to those students who
present any degree and type of learning difficulty, in a continuum that goes from the mildest and
transitory to the most serious and permanent ”(Ibid.).