Attention to diversity in compulsory secondary education: Analysis from the education inspection

Abstract

The objective of this study is twofold: The first is to determine the perceptions that education inspection professionals have on the attention to diversity in compulsory secondary education; and secondly, to check if there are differences in the perception of these professionals that depend on certain socio-demographic variables. For this purpose, an "ad hoc" questionnaire was applied (demographic data), and another for the assessment of attention to diversity as an educational dimension in schools (EVADIE: inspection education version) to 62 education inspectors of the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain). The results show a sense of diversity as something positive and rewarding that should be included in educational projects for schools, focused on educational and vocational guidance according to the abilities of the students. In addition, the study provides empirical evidence of weakness in the socio-demographic variables of the education inspection on the attention to diversity in compulsory secondary education centres. There are only significant differences according to age (in the curriculum, ordinary and extraordinary measures), antiquity (in the curriculum and the extraordinary measures), qualification (in the centre and curriculum), and province (in the centre and concept of diversity).