An Ecological-Integrated Framework for an Inclusive Academia

This article proposes a reflection on the meanings, models and prac- tices aimed at supporting and promoting inclusive processes in universities. A review of recent literature on inclusive cultures and practices in higher education confirms the idea of inclusion as a “universal value”, albeit with different declina- tions, in terms of intentions, priorities and operativeness, as in the case of didactics. In general, inclusive teaching is one of the indicators of a university’s inclusive- ness and innovativeness, even if a ‘double track’ remains. The framework of the ‘inclusive university as a complex ecosystem between economics and ecology [56] has guided the construction of an operational framework, consistent with an integrated ecological-relational vision of the inclusive model, and the definition of a set of related indicators that characterize inclusive teaching – specialized for all, in order to support processes that foster the collective construction of inclusive universities [1, 12]. In line with this model, two schemes have been developed for the defini- tion of the “original” model of inclusion and for the implementation of inclusive and innovative universities (integrated model) that allow for the integration and focusing of different elements, dimensions and levels, in a single framework, con- sistent with an idea of special and inclusive pedagogy and didactics [10], and with the ecological-relational model. Within this model, the increasing attention paid to new technological tools is reconceptualized as a valid support for the promotion of authentically inclusive education. Tools and technologies find an epistemological position