scholarly journals Inclusive University Education in Bolivia: The Actors and Their Discourses

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10818
Author(s):  
Jesús Muyor-Rodríguez ◽  
Virginia Fuentes-Gutiérrez ◽  
Yolanda María De la Fuente-Robles ◽  
Teresa Amezcua-Aguilar

Education policies in Bolivia and other parts of Latin America have improved significantly in recent years. However, there continue to be barriers to higher education for students with specific educational support needs and difficulties are still found in the institutional management of inclusive education. This paper aims to better understand the elements that facilitate and hinder university inclusion of students with functional diversity in Bolivia. The methodology used is qualitative. The discourses of key informants within the university community were collected using the focus group technique. The software Atlas.ti-8 was used for data processing and inductive coding was performed using the constant comparison method. The study’s main findings indicate that both the categorization of functional diversity and the financing model in place have a great impact on inclusive education actions at the university level. The research also reveals a lack of correspondence between the rights of people with functional diversity and the resources allocated to them. The conclusions point to the need to establish intersectional institutional strategies based on the recognition of diversity as an essential value in the development of inclusive and sustainable education.

Author(s):  
Ayman Massouti

This qualitative single case study aimed to examine the logics of one teacher education program towards preparing pre-service teachers for inclusive teaching from the perspectives of the program’s coordinators. In particular, the study aimed to understand the practices of these coordinators and how these practices are influenced by inclusive education and teacher education policies. This examination would reveal how education policies are enacted in this particular case. New-Institutionalism (NI) theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1991) constituted the theoretical framework that guided the methodology as well as the analysis of the findings. The study revealed that the coordinators’ understanding and practices around the existing inclusion and teacher education policies emerge from their own experiences in this particular program, intermingled with their beliefs about how inclusion should be enacted in teacher education and schools. Key findings included coordinators developing inclusive mindsets among pre-service teachers, negotiating their logics towards inclusion through modeling inclusive teaching practices in the university classroom, and engaging them in critical discussions around inclusion policy practice in schools, and coordinators calling for a curriculum policy change. Recommendations for future teacher education programming in response to the evolving inclusive education are offered.


Dynamics in the higher education, internalisation and global economic turmoil drastically influences the research outcomes with implications to the global ranking of higher education institutions (HEIs) and the universities. National education policies and the ranking of higher education institutions (HEIs) are entwined and mutually influence each other. In recent times, the global ranking by various organisations like QS, THE, and government agencies become proxy to conclude the excellence of a university. National Global, regional and national socio-economic-political concerns are influencing the functioning of universities with respect to international student recruitments. International student admissions also greatly contribute to the funds for the university and economy of the nations, simultaneously. This research paper is an investigative study of value creation in the university education systems and the impact of ranking and higher education policies. In this paper, authors have highlighted a couple of key points. First of all, the universities have to acclimatize as per the global rankings standards and reinforce to become value creation centers, with more responsible towards the demands of society. The authors have highlighted about the convolution and challenges universities are facing and measures to deal with. The conscientious approach to the facades of new knowledge areas in the new global socio-economic milieu gives a tangible and relevance to the execution of responsible research and innovation with value co-creation in university systems.


2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 569-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael H. Lee ◽  
Saravanan Gopinathan

The Singapore government has put forward a comprehensive restructuring program of university education since the 1990s. Public universities in Singapore are going to be developed as world-class universities through a series of university education policies and reforms. This article reviews major developments of university education policies and reforms in Singapore since the mid-1990s and examines critically the impact of the restructuring policies and reforms on the university system in Singapore. It is argued that universities in Singapore can enjoy a higher degree of institutional autonomy within a more stringent framework of public accountability. The university restructuring policy is not only aimed at transforming Singapore as a regional education hub, but also developing public universities in the island-state as world-class higher education institutions. Singapore's universities have to cope with many unprecedented changes and challenges amidst the restructuring process.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.A. Denisova ◽  
O.L. Lekhanova

This article describes the regional experience of teaching students with disabilities in a multidisciplinary university. Analysis of resources and algorithms of educational support provided at the university creates the opportunity to share this experience and to evaluate its significance for the development of higher inclusive education, as well as to assess the perspectives for its application in similar educational environments. Consulting, education, coordination and rehabilitation services are the main forms of assistance to students and teachers at all stages of education and socialization of people with disabilities. The university has a department that provides support to students with disabilities and their teachers. The analysis of the successes and challenges of higher education of persons with disabilities shows that there is an objective need to unite the efforts of the university with the regional non-governmental organizations and the authorities of the region, with health care, education and social services in order to support young people with disabilities.


Mousaion ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Eneya ◽  
Dennis N. Ocholla ◽  
Bertha Janneke Mostert

This paper investigates the University of Zululand Library’s response to the university’s inclusive education agenda with respect to the accessibility of library services to students with disabilities. This was a qualitative study within the interpretive paradigm that used Michael Oliver’s social model of disability as an underpinning theory. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from students with disabilities and library staff. In addition, physical inspection of the library building was also conducted. Data analysis was done by thematic analysis. The study reveals that the University of Zululand Library services are not inclusive. Students with disabilities struggle to access library services. They faced such challenges as inaccessibility of library services, unavailability of resources in alternative formats and assistive technologies, and the lack of a disability policy. The study also found that the library faced the following challenges in providing services for students with disabilities: limited funding, a lack of staff awareness and training, the lack of a disability policy and a lack of collaboration. Formulating regulations to enforce the implementation of disability policy and legislation, developing institutional disability policies, and providing assistive technologies are critical in ensuring the accessibility of library services to students with disabilities at the University of Zululand. Unless students with disabilities have equal access to information, the university’s inclusive education agenda will remain a distant dream. Access to academic library services is critical to the full participation of students with disabilities in education. Likewise, inclusive university education can only be realised when students with disabilities have equal access to information. This aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities, which promote equal access to services and facilities to persons with disabilities. This paper raises awareness for both library staff and university management about the current status of library facilities and services with respect to accessibility for students with disabilities and how to address inclusiveness in library service provision.


GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Abasiama G. Akpan ◽  
Chris Eriye Tralagba

Electronic learning or online learning is a part of recent education which is dramatically used in universities all over the world. As well as the use and integration of e-learning is at the crucial stage in all developing countries. It is the most significant part of education that enhances and improves the educational system. This paper is to examine the hindrances that influence e-learning in Nigerian university system. In order to have an inclusive research, a case study research was performed in Evangel University, Akaeze, southeast of Nigeria. The paper demonstrates similar hindrances on country side. This research is a blend of questionnaires and interviews, the questionnaires was distributed to lecturers and an interview was conducted with management and information technology unit. Research had shown the use of e-learning in university education which has influenced effectively and efficiently the education system and that the University education in Nigeria is at the crucial stage of e-learning. Hence, some of the hindrances are avoiding unbeaten integration of e-learning. The aim of this research is to unravel the barriers that impede the integration of e-learning in universities in Nigeria. Nevertheless, e-learning has modified the teaching and learning approach but integration is faced with many challenges in Nigerian University.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel James Cook

There is a difference between doing something well and doing something good. And there is a difference between failing to do something well, and failing to do something good. In this paper, I assess our contemporary University in the latter sense of failure. While the University can be ineffective, or fail to function well, there is more at stake if the University, as an institution, is in conflict with nature. That is, it is one thing for the University to be ineffective in its means, but here I will pose the question: is the contemporary University sinful? Using Josef Pieper's elucidation of moral failure and John Henry Newman's analysis of the proper ends of University education, I defend the thesis that because the aim of our contemporary University seems to come in conflict with the goal of nature as a whole, it may be understood as sinful.


Author(s):  
Anne Roosipõld ◽  
Krista Loogma ◽  
Mare Kurvits ◽  
Kristina Murtazin

In recent years, providing higher education in the form of work-based learning has become more important in the higher education (HE) policy and practice almost in all EU countries. Work-based learning (WBL) in HE should support the development of competences of self-guided learners and adjust the university education better to the needs of the workplace. The study is based on two pilot projects of WBL in HE in Estonia: Tourism and Restaurant Management professional HE programme and the master’s programme in Business Information Technology. The model of integrative pedagogy, based on the social-constructivist learning theory, is taken as a theoretical foundation for the study. A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with the target groups. The data analysis used a horizontal analysis to find cross-cutting themes and identify patterns of actions and connections. It appears, that the challenge for HE is to create better cooperation among stakeholders; the challenge for workplaces is connected with better involvement of students; the challenge for students is to take more initiative and responsibility in communication with workplaces.


Author(s):  
Tania Maritza Díaz Macías ◽  
Leila María Álava Barreiro ◽  
Diana Stefani Velásquez García

The work aims to provoke critical educational reflections on the current state of the scientific-pedagogical conception of inclusive education in the university context. In this sense, we are aware of the existence of an extremely positive conceptual evolution in recent times. It is necessary to articulate new discourses and teaching practices that project and illuminate the idea that inclusive education as a permanent process of change in education and for which the development of psychological activities outlined in resilience can play an important role. The Ecuadorian higher education system has experienced, for a few years, changes of great pedagogical interest. In this framework, a whole process of generating educational policies and inclusive education is shown, taking as a framework the professors and managers of the Technical University of Manabí (UTM) (Ecuador), to contribute to the greater inclusive development of the said university. The main challenges for university institutions regarding fostering the resilience of the academic process are presented.


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