Current Research on Inclusive Education in Mexico

Abstract

Introduction. The study of access, participation and learning for people with disabilities in Mexico has been a recurring theme in the country’s educational research, however, its treatment over the last three decades has been superficial and contradictory. Based on a systematised literature review, guided through the PRISMA-S checklist and by means of a qualitative content analysis we describe and analyse the most developed themes and approaches in Mexican research published in indexed journals on the education of people with disabilities over the last nine years. Materials and Methods. Based on the protocols, reviews were conducted in multiple databases and the results were limited to Ibero-American journals published between 2013 and 2021. Keywords in Spanish related to disability and inclusion were used for the search. Inclusion criteria specified Mexican authorship or analysis of the Mexican context, blind peer review and relevance to Social Sciences teaching. The analysis involved a coding process focusing on the epistemic positioning, main themes and transformative aims of the research, providing a descriptive overview of academic articles. Results. The results highlight that the studies, for the most part, tend to be empirical research reports promoted by female re-searchers from Mexican public universities, a large part of the studies are situated in the paradigm of inclusive education and the objectives of the research tend to study the conditions of schools and universities. During the analysis process, 13 thematic sub-dimensions were identified, of which two stand out: 1) initial and in-service teacher training and 2) inclusive education policies. The study points out some contradictions between the theoretical approach selected by the authors and their own forms of research; the scarcity of socio-critical research and a worrying need for funds to develop transformative projects in Mexican schools. Discussion and Conclusion. The study calls for expanded international research efforts to collectively improve educational conditions for people with disabilities.