For an inclusive education free of ableism: the importance of alterity as foundation

Abstract

Nowadays, in the educational field, it does exist the general tendency to claim the inclusive education as the best way of attending to the differences we find in and outside the school. This educational model is based on the principle that all we are equally diverse, so that a fair education should include and make present the singularity of each person in its development. However, our society, based on certain values of independence, autonomy, and capacity, unavoidably places some singularities above others. This paper, from a philosophical-educational perspective, and thus fundamentally by means of critical analysis of texts, on the one hand, aims to shed light on the mistake entailed in keeping a model of inclusive education exclusively focused on the qualification of singularities. On the other hand, as a counterpoint, it attempts to substantiate an inclusive education that incorporates the idea of alterity in an essential way.