Creating pathways for the development of a policy on inclusion in education

Abstract

In 2019, Mexico went through an education reform driven by a transformative government that supports the right to compulsory, universal, inclusive, public, free, and secular education from a humanistic perspective within the framework of a project known as the New Mexican School (NEM for its abbreviation in Spanish). This article outlines the progression taken by the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP for its abbreviation in Spanish) and the National Commission for the Continuous Improvement of Education (MEJOREDU for its abbreviation in Spanish) to promote and preserve inclusive education in laws and projects, as well as a holistic development of girls, boys, adolescents, and young people. In this convergence of normative approaches and actions taken by both institutions, an account of the proposals and actions for the realization of this policy is provided, and the complexity of implementing fundamental educational changes within a social justice policy that conceives inclusive education within a broad framework that takes into account the conditions of exclusion and inequality affecting educational trajectories and appeals to a concurrent vision ensuring equitable education for all is acknowledged. This is the path we have undertaken for a collective participation. In this sense, this article identifies the progress made, as well as the challenges presented by this new perspective in its implementation among the various education and school actors, within the interplay of political will, the specificities of the National Educational System of Mexico (SEN), and the deep-rooted practices in school cultures.