The difference between inclusive education, school inclusion and special education.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created after the Second World War with the goal of guaranteeing peace between nations by seeking answers to the problems that challenge our society. For that reason, various documents and declarations have been produced over the years. The first was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, but specifically on education, people with disabilities and diversity, some stand out:

World Conference on Education for All, Jomtien, 1990
Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, Salamanca, 1994
Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities. Guatemala, 1999.
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, New York, 2006.
Incheon Declaration, Education 2030: towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. South Korea, 2015

These documents are produced by a collective of various countries and are therefore situated in different historical and cultural contexts. That is why, when we use the term inclusive education, its meaning is not restricted to the context of special education policy in Brazil.

Inclusive education covers, beyond people in a situation of disability, people at a socioeconomic disadvantage, war refugees, ethnic and racial minorities and others. That is, it is about guaranteeing education to every segment of the population historically excluded or marginalized.

It is important to stress that studies describing the population eligible to receive input from the scientific field of special education in Brazil's school census, particularly analyzing students with intellectual disabilities, make plain the bias between a student's eligibility and their socioeconomic condition, race and gender. That is why it is not uncommon for some people to treat inclusive education and school inclusion as synonyms, even though that is not correct, because it restricts the broad group covered by inclusive education.

School inclusion is a multidimensional concept including philosophical, political, educational, normative and investigative dimensions, but with a single goal: the schooling of students considered eligible for the services, professionals and knowledge of special education, that is, school-age people with disabilities, global developmental disorders or giftedness.

Beyond that, it is worth stressing that special education is the field of knowledge that contributes to guaranteeing the right to education of the group it serves. By law, it runs across everything and does not replace education in the mainstream classroom.

References:

VELTRONE, Aline Aparecida, MENDES, Enicéia Gonçalves. Descrição das propostas do Ministério da Educação na avaliação da deficiência intelectual. Paidéia (Ribeirão Preto) [online]. 2011, vol.21, n.50, pp.413-421. ISSN 0103-863X. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-863X2011000300014.

MENDES, Enicéia Gonçalves; TANNUS-VALADAO, Gabriela; MILANESI, Josiane Beltrami. Atendimento Educacional Especializado para estudante com deficiência intelectual: os diferentes discursos dos professores especializados sobre o que e como ensinar. LINHAS (FLORIANÓPOLIS. ONLINE), v. 17, p. 045-067, 2016.