Attention to the diversity of students

This unexpected current situation makes us reassess the context through which attention to students’ diversity is going and what measures have to be implemented, based on what is established in the national regulations. Before we begin to analyze the measures for attention to diversity proposed by the Spanish educational legislation, it is necessary to define the concept under analysis. Understanding attention to diversity as the set of educational actions that meet school students’ needs and that require a specific type of action from personal or social factors (Rodríguez & Gómez, 2018); it is necessary to adapt the education environment to the special educational needs through new professional practices that entail creating activities focused on the full development of the person and their personal and social needs.

To this end, and alluding to the concept of inclusive school, specific educational programs, that take into account the diversity, characteristics, and needs of students, have to be created, allowing students’ integration in the educational community and providing them with a participatory and preponderant role in their learning and inclusion process, as well as enhancing their social participation within the peer group in which they are (Espinosa, Reyes, & Rodríguez, 2015).

This educational inclusion must be achieved through the creation of common participatory tools and spaces for all students (regardless of their personal characteristics) and must aim to diminish all the processes that entail excluding students (Barton, 2009), by participating and actively taking part in the school life, since they are the very heart of education.

Education aims to promote the development and socialization of all students, without exceptions, and as comprehensively and deeply as possible, since attention to diversity is not optional, but an unavoidable part that needs to be accomplished in all its aspects, giving meaning to the educational activity itself. Students, in their entirety, have an enormous learning potential, since their heterogeneity represents an added value for attention to diversity due to their different abilities, cultures, and needs.

The school, and its compensatory function, breaks the family and social inequalities of students, since it takes every student into consideration while building common aspects and it allows the equitable development of their competences, abilities, and skills, especially from the perspective of developing students’ emotional, physical, and personal well-being (Díez & Gajardo, 2020).

The aforementioned conceptions are collected in the preamble of the Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education, modified by the unique article of the Organic Law 8/2013, of December 9, for the Improvement of Educational Quality (hereinafter, LOMCE). This preamble states that education entails facilitating personal development and social integration, determining the lifelong trajectory goals and expectations, and the set of knowledge, resources, and learning tools that enable a person to successfully fulfill their objectives. This has to be guaranteed through the principles of the educational system, since education must guarantee quality, equity, equal rights and opportunities, non-discrimination, educational inclusion, flexibilization, and personalization of education for all students, as well as educational and professional guidance, among others (BOE, 2010).

Attention to diversity in education must be governed by the principles of normalization and inclusion, guaranteeing the non-discrimination and effective equality in access to and permanence in the educational system, as well as paying special attention to inequalities derived from any type of disability. Educational administrations must have the necessary means to assist students who require educational support for specific needs (By supplying specialized professionals, means and materials, organizational flexibilization in schools, or developing precise adjustments and diversifications, among others).

If we delve into the Spanish educational legislation, students with educational needs are defined as those who, based on their personal, family, environmental, and social characteristics, require a certain type of educational attention different from the ordinary one, and it classifies them into different categories, according to their characteristics and needs.

Article 71 of the LOMCE states the necessity of enhancing students’ personal, intellectual, social, and emotional development at their most, by supplying resources to provide educational attention to these types of students. To this end, measures for attention to diversity have to be included in the school organization, making precise curricular adjustments and diversifications that facilitate the acquisition and consolidation of the corresponding lessons.

Among the measures embodied in the LOMCE, there are two concretion levels regarding educational attention to students: general measures for all students and specific measures according to students’ characteristics and the educational support they require.

At general level for students, the LOMCE establishes principles, such as the aforementioned, that serve as a compensatory element for inequalities, as well as values of solidarity, tolerance, equality, and respect to overcome discrimination. It also presents the necessity of adapting education to the diversity of students’ aptitudes, interests, expectations, and needs.

To this end, throughout the articles of the different sections, the need to adapt the teaching and learning processes to students’ work rhythms is emphasized, as well as to develop their affective abilities in all areas, their relationships with others, and educating about non-violence. This approach is based on the necessity of defining learning as a common element for students, without their personal characteristics constituting a discriminatory element for their equal access to opportunities. Legislative development places special attention on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as an element that allows the adaptation of teaching for all students, through greater flexibilization of the curriculum and the educational means and materials (Alba, 2016).

Teaching flexibilization and adaptation strategies are established as measures for attention to diversity among all students, such as curricular adjustment, integration of subjects into fields, flexible groupings, splitting into groups, the creation of reinforcement programs or personalized programs for students who require educational support for specific needs (ACNEAE). These measures, mainly aimed at students belonging to the Compulsory Secondary Education stage, are arranged based on the pedagogical autonomy of schools according to their organization and adoption of measures for attention to diversity.

This educational approach focuses on the acquisition of key competences as an indispensable condition for students to achieve their full personal, social, and professional development through the competence-based approach. It presents the possibility of schools being able to elaborate their curricular proposal by adapting the official curriculum to the differentiating educational needs of students, thus guaranteeing the fulfillment of their needs and the promotion of their autonomy.

In a complementary way, the LOMCE establishes a categorization of students with special educational needs (which we will clarify in the specific attention measures for students). If we bear in mind the importance of the principles of educational inclusion, universal accessibility design, and quality of education for all students (defined in Article 1 of the LOMCE), we can envision a myriad of educational responses to students’ diversity that, based on national regulations, entail the general establishment of methodological and pedagogical principles that must be defined within the regional framework and that follow the approaches of international guidelines regarding educational attention to students, such as the Incheon Declaration (2015) or the Children’s rights (1989).

Regarding the specific attention measures for students with special educational needs, Article 71 of the LOMCE categorizes students into educational attention groups based on their personal needs (students with special educational needs derived from disability or serious behavior disorders, students with attention deficit disorder with/without hyperactivity (ADHD), higher competence levels, late incorporation, and personal conditions or academic record).

The main measures established go through early identification and assessment of their learning necessities based on the aforementioned educational principles. Broadly speaking, provision of educational attention resources and the establishment of procedures and resources to identify their needs and guarantee their schooling and family participation are established for these types of students, as well as the adoption of measures that entail specialized counseling.

More specifically, we can find measures at the schooling level (in special education centers or entities for students with special educational needs), flexibilization of the school syllabus through curricular adaptations (for students with special educational needs, with ADHD and/or students with specific learning difficulties), plans and programs for curricular enrichment, as well as flexibilization measures to change the educational stages duration (for students who exhibit higher competence levels), schooling based on their circumstances, knowledge, age, and academic record, as well as specific programs at a linguistic level and to reinforce basic competences or knowledge (for students with late entry into the Spanish education system), and specific compensatory education programs (for the students who are in unfavorable situations derived from personal, social, economic, cultural, geographical, ethnic or other types of factors).

These specific measures for attention to diversity (LOMCE, 2013) are defined at a regional level in accordance with the transference of educational and attention to diversity competences to the Autonomous Communities, although all these regional measures have to be based on and respect the principles and goals of attention to diversity established in the national educational regulations.

As already mentioned, the situation that the education system is currently facing has entailed the definition of specific instructions to continue educating in virtual learning environments. To this end, the Education and Vocational Training Ministry has issued an action and guidelines framework for the third term of the 2019-2020 academic year and the beginning of the next year, in the face of the social and educational crisis caused by COVID-19 (BOE, 2020b).

The general guidelines established in this Order are divided into seven main axes. Regarding the care for people, it is considered a fundamental principle due to this unexpected situation and it establishes the support for students and their families to make the execution of their tasks and functions possible, always based on the precept and fulfillment of the rights defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Regarding the school year, the adaptation of academic activities for students with the aim to keep them engaged to the continuous learning process based on their age, characteristics, and any exceptional situation they may be experiencing, constitute a general guideline to follow. During the academic term, education is complemented with reinforcement activities in the summer period, coordinated by entities of the educational community (local entities, associations, or organizations).

There will be specific measures and plans to restore the link with school, and reinforcement measures to ensure reintegration into the educational activity for students who, due to their personal or any unexpected situation, are disconnected or cannot be reached. Additionally, emphasis is placed on the identification of students’ technological and digital deficiencies and encouraging students to make use of them by supplying these resources.

A paramount aspect is the attention to students who require educational support for specific needs. It also states the necessity of arranging the support resources of schools to promote access to the curriculum by adapting the instruments, times, and assistance measures.

Education focuses on the indispensable lessons and competences of the stage, through the flexibilization of working plans and the implementation of remedial, review, reinforcement, and expansion activities of the content already studied, based on a globalizing and interdisciplinary design, promoting cooperative work among the teachers who educate within the same group-class of students.

The examination has to be adapted to students’ situation, not hindering them in their training process given the extraordinary characteristics of the situation, and highlighting the diagnostic and formative assessment of students (to elaborate the necessary reinforcement and remedial plans). Students’ promotion is considered the general norm, being repetition an extraordinary measure to be implemented, as long as the student has neither reached the stage objectives nor adequately developed the established competences.

The measures for attention to individual or group diversities that fulfill students’ specific educational needs and the attainment of the learning results linked to indispensable knowledge will be the starting point for the configuration of the 2020-2021 academic year.

These guidelines established by the Education and Vocational Training Ministry represent the starting point for the Autonomous Communities and schools, in accordance with their competences established in the LOMCE regarding the educational planning and organization. As we have previously mentioned, it alludes to the autonomy of schools to define their educational planning during this exceptional academic term, and the mechanisms to alleviate the current situation are established.

If we take into consideration the general and specific action measures regarding students who require educational support for specific needs and the guidelines defined by the Orden EFP/365/2020 (EN: Education and Vocational Training Order), we can note that attention to students’ diversity in exceptional educational situations is considered an aspect to take into account, but ultimately schools have to establish the appropriate mechanisms so that students can receive the necessary support.

Objectives

The study’s main objective is to analyze the measures for attention to diversity embodied in the current national educational legislation and their implementation during this particular learning situation that we have been experiencing since the closure schools caused by COVID-19. To achieve this goal, we have set the following objectives:

Contextualization

Due to this work’s nature, state of the art, scientific literature (Cáceres, 2020; Casanova, 2020; Díez-Gutiérrez & Gajardo-Espinoza, 2020; Feito, 2020; Moreno, 2020; Sainz & Sanz, 2020) (Casanova, 2020; Cáceres, 2020; Feito, 2020; Moreno, 2020; Sainz & Sanz, 2020) and objectives, the methodology (qualitative) was organized based on the search, analysis, selection, and referencing of fundamental documents and sources regarding attention to diversity of students and teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The selected documents and sources fall into three main categories:

Source: authors’ own creation

National and international databases were used to select the literature in question, with which we had some difficulties to obtain relevant results. A total of 10 databases were used to obtain bibliographical results, related to the subject of study and this work’s objectives.

Source: authors’ own creation

Instrument

Out of the 30 works chosen to carry out this project, only 10 have been used, since we have discovered that there is no previous documentation associated to the thematic line here presented. The conclusions were drawn by analyzing the current educational legislation, by reviewing the conceptualization of attention to diversity and its measures for educational attention, and the results obtained from the literature review process.

The working method used is based on content analysis, meaning that this research consisted in collecting, evaluating, selecting, and summarizing the implicit and explicit messages contained in a series of documents (Dulzaides & Molina, 2004). Thus, the description and interpretation of the texts under study became the main thrust of this investigation (Bardin, 2002). Regarding the case under examination and according to this work’s objective, we have taken into account as unit of analysis:

Attention to diversity:

• Conceptualization

• Legislative measures

• Educational implications

• Educational model:

• Resources and strategies

• Types of educational attention

• Current educational model

• Students’ characteristics

• Procedure

The working method used is based on content analysis. After considering our interests, the nature of the subject, and emergence of evidence, we decided that working with documentary sources was the best way to attain new knowledge of the subject in question. The working procedure consisted in interrogating the different documents with implicit questions, namely, according to Ruiz and Ispizua (1989), using the reading as an interview/observation combination, with the possibility of implementing any of them. The phases of the methodology were:

1. To define the universe of the documentary material. In order to determine the universe of the documentary material, we selected the categories of the documents and the sources chosen throughout fifteen days.

2. To select a sample. Given the topic being addressed in this work, we decided to conduct an extensive literature search through different sources, to specify the subject under study, for twenty days.

3. To define the basic units of analysis to be collected (words, phrases, paragraphs, full texts, images). The selection of the literature corresponds to the subject being addressed in this work, establishing a selection process by publication date and the direct relationship with the subject of study. This process lasted ten days.

4. To codify conceptual categories. For the codification of the conceptual categories, we began with the analysis of the legislative sources, which set the codification pattern of the literature resources. This process lasted twenty days.

5. To conduct a pretest of the codification performed. This phase, which lasted ten days, allowed choosing correctly the literature used and establishing the elements of the analysis.

6. To carry out the analysis. The analysis of the bibliographical documentation was thoroughly conducted, corroborating hypotheses proposed in the objectives section. This final process lasted twenty days.