Designing for all: From intent to inclusive action

In recent years, discussing educational inclusion has become a priority in pedagogical discourse. However, beyond the rhetoric, true inclusion goes much further than simply integrating students with specific needs into the regular classroom. It entails an ethical, pedagogical, and organizational commitment to equity, social justice, and respect for human diversity.

Including is not just about allowing all students to be physically present in the classroom. It’s about ensuring that each child has the necessary tools to learn and develop on equal terms, regardless of their personal, social, or cultural context.

According to Susan Bray Stainback, inclusive education is the process by which all children have the right to be in the regular classroom, learn with their peers, and be part of the educational community. Alternatives are only allowed if they provide a real and proven benefit to the student.

Each classroom is a universe of differences: learning paces, cognitive styles, native languages, family situations, physical, emotional, and social capabilities. An inclusive perspective does not view this diversity as an obstacle but as an opportunity to enrich the educational process. Assuming that all students learn the same way is one of the biggest mistakes we can make. Inclusion constantly challenges us to ask: What does each student need to truly learn?

Principles and strategies for real inclusion:

- Universal Design for Learning: It’s not about making adjustments afterward, but designing flexible proposals from the start. UDL promotes different ways of representation, expression, and participation to cater to the diversity of students.

- Active and cooperative methodologies: As Pere Pujolàs suggests, cooperative learning is a key tool that promotes positive interdependence and shared responsibility, allowing all students to participate and benefit from the group.

- Formative and personalized assessment: Observing, supporting, and adjusting criteria based on each student's actual progress is essential to avoid evaluations that marginalize or overlook individual advances.

- Support within the classroom and co-teaching: Having more than one professional in the classroom—teacher, specialist, educator—helps better attend to diversity and prevents exclusionary practices such as systematic separation.

- An emotionally safe environment: Inclusion also involves building emotionally healthy classrooms where there is listening, dialogue, and conflict resolution based on positive coexistence.

Inclusion is not the sole responsibility of the teacher in front of the group. It involves a profound transformation of the entire educational system: public policies, initial and ongoing teacher training, institutional culture, and the participation of families and communities. UNESCO emphasizes that inclusion must be part of all levels of the system, from legislation to everyday practices.

Furthermore, moving toward an inclusive school is essential for fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda, which proposes "ensuring inclusive, equitable, and quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all."

One of the main challenges highlighted by educational teams is the lack of resources. It’s true: often we don’t have the personnel, time, or training we need to address the diversity of the classroom as we would like. However, it is also true that, in many cases, we do have enough human resources, but we don't organize them effectively. Knowing how to coordinate support, establish common times, create collaborative workspaces, and optimize available resources is one of the keys to making inclusion effective.

In an inclusive school, there are no “normal” and “special” students; there are students, each with their own characteristics. Success is not measured by standardized grades or the number of titles earned, but by the added value: how much each student has progressed relative to themselves.

Academic excellence should not be seen as a single pattern that everyone must follow but as a flexible concept that recognizes the diversity of talents and learning paces. Each student has their own path to success, and that success is not always measured by the same parameters. For some, it may mean achieving high academic results; for others, it may involve overcoming personal barriers, consolidating fundamental learnings, or making significant progress in their educational journey.

Advancing toward real inclusion does not depend only on more resources but on a collective will to rethink how, why, and for whom we educate. Only from this shared perspective can we build a school that leaves no one behind.