Chapter 5 ABSTRACT The attention to special educational needs (SEN), in and from the university context, promotes the inclusion in all areas of life, the development of a fair and equitable society, and the functions of the university fulfillment as a radiator of influences in the national and foreign environment. Based on this premise, three experiences from different universities that applied technological possibilities in the visibility, awareness, intervention, and satisfaction of SEN are presented in the chapter. It also examines how these practices have benefited the functions achievement of these higher education institutions, the development of the academic digital brand, and university positioning. Inclusive Education in the University: Contributions to the Academic Digital Brand and the University Reputation
66 Chapter Inclusive Education in the University: Contributions to the Academic Digital Brand and the University Reputation Marylin Figueroa Cruz Universidad Estatal de Milagro, Ecuador Gretel Vázquez Zubizarreta Pedagogical Sciences University Enrique Jose Varona, Cuba Ivette Méndez Forns Havana University, Cuba María Jackeline Langarano Delá Universidad de Guayaquil, Ecuador Carlos Andres Loyola Romero State University of Milagro, Ecuador ABSTRACT The attention to special educational needs (SEN), in and from the university context, promotes the inclusion in all areas of life, the development of a fair and equitable society, and the functions of the university fulfillment as a radiator of influences in the national and foreign environment Based on this premise, three experiences from different universities that applied technological possibilities in the visibility, awareness, intervention, and satisfaction of SEN are presented in the chapter It also examines how these practices have benefited the functions achievement of these higher education institutions, the development of the academic digital brand, and university positioning DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-4930-8.ch005 Copyright © 2021, IGI Global Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited Inclusive Education in the University INTRODUCTION In the currently social context the university constitutes an institution that organizes, promotes and concretes the higher education system in each state It has become the fundamental center that contributes to solve the problems of its environment at a community, regional and including national and international level It has assumed this role from the potential of its professionals and teaching staff in a general sense, which are responsible for organizing scientific work around the development of research that will then contribute to solve identifying problems and improving the educational work In this sense, Larrea & Granados (2013) highlighted than historically universities have been recognized institutions for their influence in social transformation and development Its role today is to establish itself as centers of leadership, innovation and transformation in all human areas and where the respect for rights, social justice and the guarantee of social welfare are privileged This complex task cannot be carried out if the university is not actively, participative and responsibly inserted in the construction of an equitable society The achievement of social equity goes beyond trying to include people in transformative processes It implies making them protagonists based on the opportune satisfaction of their needs and the stimulation of their potentialities Another basic premises for high education centers to impact their transformations is to position themselves in the communication and market scope The development of information and communication technologies demand transcending in the digital scope Achieving a digital positioning represents the improvement of the work that is done from the dissemination of the results, for its generalization and the creation of new institutional alliances that consolidate, diversify and improve the work done by the university It should also arise from this process the orientation to new perspectives and work routes, which emanate from a feedback generated by advertising, as of the opinion of the academic community, students, researchers, specialists and users of the networks contributing with their criteria to improve university management This is closely related to a concept that has emerged in recent years: e-branding or academic digital branding, although it has a business foundation as long as there are authors who consider the university as a company (Del Pino & Lloret, 2018), their implementation must transcend the advertising and visual communication fact generating certain trends of actions in the university that, from research and social management impact onto the academic, so thus this brand not only refers to the visual identity but to the academic identity of the high studies centers The chapter is directed towards this direction It shows five experiences, gathered in three case studies, related to inclusive education from and for the university, which generated a trend in university work Three of these experiences were developed in higher education centers in Ecuador and the other two in two Cuban universities, the University of Havana and Enrique José Varona Pedagogical Sciences University It is explained in each case what were the experience and results obtained in relation to the strengthening of the academic digital brand and university reputation BACKGROUND The academic digital brand, according to Del Pino & Lloret (2018), is a visual identity construction of an organization, in this case the university This digital brand has a representative and recognition function and has been enriched with the use of digital technology and networks Having a digital identity 67 Inclusive Education in the University demands certain visibility from the university’s positioning, a positive recognition or reputation and also privacy and self-determination in the networks Del Pino (2018) determines some of the factors that condition the academic digital brand in the university These are, according to the author: seniority of the center, awards and recognitions received, both from the institution and its professionals, the use of academic Google and the generation of trends in it, using tools to perform monitoring that express the University website performance, the number of articles in indexed journals, in databases such as ISI WoK and Scopus, the use of personal, academic and professional social networks to spread information, the university ranking, the existence of applications that make viable University services, the generation of trends and use of educational environments, classrooms and virtual reality Most of these elements are mainly related to the traffic of information on the web It is very important to recognize that all this information must respond directly to all academic, research and management work that is what really characterizes universities Achieving a conditioning in students, professionals, university community and all people who may need or support university work what the university represents at the local, regional, national or international level depends initially on all the work that this institution develops, its impact on society and of course, the dissemination of this work, mainly in the networks In this sense, the work of the university must be aimed at generating identity trends Particularities and singularities of each institution of higher education should be recognized by the actions that, from the social, research and academic management are implemented, to contribute objectively supporting the academic digital brand and the reputation of the university and the professionals who work there (Climent & Navarro, 2017) In the same way, achieving a positive positioning will contribute to strengthen the academic digital brand (Del Río, Cardona & Simancas, 2017) This positioning must be the result of the relevance and quality of the work that is done In this sense it is important to emphasize the articulating axis of this work that is currently social management According to Larrea & Granados, “university social management is a product and at the same time a producer of the new changes taking place in society” (2013, p 61) For these reasons, the projection of higher education centers towards the solution of social problems and the improvement of life is vital One of these most pressing social problems today is the one referred to educational inclusion or inclusive education Inclusion is a process that surpasses the school context but undoubtedly, to achieve social inclusion or an inclusive society, the school and the education system in general, plays a key role Arnaiz (1996) states that “inclusive education is an attitude, a system of values and beliefs, not an action or a set of actions Once adopted by a school or a school district, it should condition the decisions and actions of those who have adopted it” (p 28) Ainscow (2001) emphasizes that“(…) that the commitment to inclusion can be transformed into action, it must permeate all aspects of school life In other words, it should not be conceived as a separate task coordinated by a specific person or group Rather, it must be at the very heart of all school work, being an essential element of development planning and carried out by all those who have responsibility for leadership and school management” (p 2) These authors, as can be seen, place a special emphasis on the school, as a resource center that should, with the experience of its teachers, direct this process that should not only be educational Inclusion must change from being an educational policy to being a social policy Since this area, the university is called to become a reference institution that leads and contributes to the solution of the problems that, in matters of inclusive education, both in the educational system as in the rest of the areas of action of the person, 68 Inclusive Education in the University may exist This work will undoubtedly contribute to the fulfillment of the functions of these centers and will place them in a privileged place regarding to the recognition of their academic digital brand MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER Issues, Controversies, Problems: Case One The first case in question derives from the Ecuadorian context In spite of the existence of a solid and well-founded legal support that covers, from all levels of education, inclusive and equitable attention from the university and towards the community (National Secretariat of Planning and Development of the Republic of Ecuador, 2013 and 2017 and the Official Organ Registry of the Government of Ecuador, 2010) have not been resolved yet, neither from training nor from the university’s social management, the attention to special educational needs associated or not with disabilities in order to favor inclusive education This case was developed in three universities in Ecuador, for a period of five years, until today It took place at the Universities of Cuenca, Guayaquil and the State of Milagro Following, the main problems detected in each one are referred to The first experience took place at the University of Cuenca From a study of disability at regional and local level it was determined that there was a considerable prevalence of multi-disability In addition, it was found that this condition of development was the most disadvantaged in terms of attention due to its complexity and the high preparation demanded on the specialists involved in their care The problem of how to contribute from the university to promote inclusive education was presented considering it as a priority of the activity of linking students, who should be prepared to meet the demands of their context In addition, it was raised the controversy of how to contribute with the university, in this case, to fulfill its functions and gain a recognized space in the community The problem of attending to students’ need from different educational levels, to promote their integral development and social inclusion, as already stated, is not a problem located in Ecuadorian higher education The centers of high studies that are not yet able to satisfy the social demand to articulate interventions that favor participation, good living, respect for rights, equity are dissimilar In this sense, pre-professional practices play a decisive factor in the projection of the university to the community, as well as the improvement of the academic and research work carried out in each one Pre-professional practices are part of the students’ theoretical-practical training process and respond to the action-research system that is developed during undergraduate training These Practices are intended to the determination of needs, as well as the intervention and solution of the problems that exist in the different scenarios where in the future, students could develop their functions as a professional These contexts can be public and private institutions and organisms of the social, political, academic and cultural productive systems Pre-professional practice is considered a subject and at the same time a chair that integrates the knowledge of the subjects learned in the career In the context of the University of Guayaquil, after a process of analysis of the social management of that center, strengths and weaknesses of the pre-professional Practices of the Psychology career were systematized In this process it was determined that the essential problem was that the student’s relationship with the community should be fostered and deepened, especially for the attention of vulnerable groups In addition, it should improve the relationship with the community in different state services, as well as to project the university towards the community, with the purpose of fulfilling one of its functions 69 Inclusive Education in the University and achieving recognition and regional positioning This was intended to support its academic digital brand from the introduction in teaching of the results obtained with social management It also sought to identify possible lines of research based on the needs of the environment surrounding the university At the State University of Milagro, as well as in the other two universities in Ecuador, it began with a study of the needs of the community that will receive the services of the professionals trained at the university In this case, numerous situations related to the insertion of young people with disabilities into the labor world were identified, as well as the poor preparation of children and adolescents from the curriculum (vocational training), for the development of skills aimed at the choice and practice of a profession when the appropriate age to exercise it was reached Preparing for developing a job is vital and basic for people with disabilities who feel willing and able to so Therefore, it is essential to ensure all the resources, material, procedural and human, that favor the person feeling useful, accepted, recognized from a social and labor perspective It is considered appropriate to clarify that the issue of job preparation transcends the personal level and becomes a social problem Access to work is a human right, so it is essential to create a group of conditions that allow the person to be provided with a functional level, according to the labor needs of society In this, the role played by the school, the family, the community and the whole of society in the formation of a person with a disability is decisive In this process of gathering needs, it was detected that one of the possible factors that could be influencing what was stated above and other needs identified was the limited number of professionals, mainly teachers, trained in Special Education For these reasons, empirical inquiries were made to employers, teachers and professionals of the UDAI (Inclusion Support Unit), professionals of the DECE (Department of Student Counseling), teachers of specialized schools and teachers of specialized classrooms in Regular Education, relatives of children and adolescents with disabilities, high school students (last year) and students with disabilities (last year of high school and university students of UNEMI) The results revealed numerous problems mainly related to the lack of specialists, a professional practice (especially educational) oriented by traditionalist methods, decontextualized, that not satisfy the social aspirations of the Ecuadorian educational system and a tendency to commercialize the educational services to the detriment of state and social responsibility of community and people with disabilities attention More Issues, Controversies, Problems: Case Two In Cuba there is a high rate of people with intellectual disabilities A study conducted in 2003 by a Collective of authors, showed that it was the most prevalent with respect to other development conditions It is important to note that this is the result of the progressive improvement of the conditions of care and life of these people However, there is recognition by the Ministry of Public Health related to the need to continue carrying out integrated and integrative actions to provide them with optimal care that results in an improvement in the quality of life One of the areas that shows the greatest difficulty is that of communication In a study carried out, as part of the work of social management or university extension, as this substantive process is named in the Cuban context, it was found that, a group of young people with moderate intellectual disabilities, who lived in communities nearby the university, showed serious difficulties in oral language This demonstration is a characteristic of people with this disability, but, in parallel, it was also identified their lack of interest in communicating with other people, isolation, lack of expression, frustration states, among other aspects that limited not only their communication, but also their socialization 70 Inclusive Education in the University On many occasions when analyzing the development possibilities of people with intellectual disabilities, emphasis is made on certain impediments and restrictions When considering in the first place the limitation of intellectual development and therefore of adaptive capacities, a limit is declared in interventional action that can even veto the scope of educational actions Working with this development condition requires recognizing the implication of a set of circumstances that characterize or typify development, based on the existence of a certain affectation It should not be conceived as a limitation but as a situation that arises and predisposes the development of the subject This development is variable among people diagnosed based on their social development situation, functional commitment, the help needed and its extent This expresses implicitly that there is a structure of the alteration In this sense, the importance of educational actions for their compensation must be considered These actions must be timely, taking into account the regularities of human development It is about urging a behavior towards attention that starts not from recognizing that the person has limitations On the contrary, potentialities should be taken as a point of reference, where the needs and not the restrictions are considered It is also necessary to take into account the fact that, in some cases, there must be conscious, systematic, previously conceived and permanent educational attention for the whole life Taking these theoretical arguments as a premise, an investigation was organized to promote the solution of the problem related to how to contribute to the development of communication of these young people with intellectual disabilities, from the university as an institution that must contribute to the solution of the problems of the community to which it extends its range of action and provides the services of its graduates Considering the expressed needs, it was necessary to determine what should be developed with respect to communication and how it should be developed, what tools to use and how to use them Even More Issues, Controversies, Problems: Case Three Nowadays, Cuban university classrooms are characterized by the presence of diverse students because of their physical and psychic abilities, due to different economic, social and other circumstances that characterize the multicultural and developmental variability This diversity that manifests itself in the university context has its origin in various factors of development of the student, as a consequence of educational, hereditary, social, economic, cultural, geographic, ethnic and religious influences, as well as intellectual, psychological, sensory, motor and gender differences This includes the diversity of teachers In order to achieve an education in and for student diversity, university professor’s preparation must be at the center of attention They are responsible for providing an educational response that is an expression of commitment with the principles that sustain and are essential in the Cuban educational system: the massive and equitable nature of education, coeducation and a university open to diversity In the current process of improving Cuban education, it is important to highlight the use of the scientific path to solve educational problems and the role that the university plays with its professors in anticipating what should happen in terms of organization, participation of community agents and agencies, the contextualization and flexibility of the curriculum where students and families are an active part of the decisions and transformations that take place in each of these institutions Due to it, in this context, professors training is urgently needed to find a solution to the problems that arise in inclusive processes and the transformation of education At the 48th UNESCO meeting of 71 Inclusive Education in the University the International Conference on Education (2008), pointed out that a key area to lay the foundations for inclusive education is teacher training Talking about inclusion in higher education necessarily implies not only the entrance, but also the permanence throughout the chosen career and the graduation of students with special educational needs associated or not with disability, joining the labor market In this sense, it should be noted that university professors have a diverse education, from professionals from different branches of science and others with pedagogical training, but that in their curricula the preparation for attention to diversity is not conceived Due to this reason the importance of preparing teachers for the attention to student diversity at the University of Havana is assumed Such preparation is a necessity from the perspective of theoretical criteria determination and orientation towards good practices in this process The issues around these relationships involved deepening the response to questions such as the following: How to strengthen theorical and practical preparation in postgraduate training, to educational inclusion professionalization at the University of Havana? In order to characterize the studied phenomenon, surveys were applied to teachers and students The results of these surveys allowed to identify: • • • • Ignorance of what disability is and the rights of people with disabilities Little relationship between disability and higher education Insufficient preparation of teachers to address diversity in the classroom and fundamentally disability Insufficient knowledge of the special educational needs associated or not with disability SOLUTIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS Based on the conditions and the situation determined in the city of Cuenca, a project was created that would initially experiment with the attention to multi-disabilities from the community to assume these experiences in the training process of future education professionals The research project “Educational strategy for the social inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities in the community” is created The first part of this project was dedicated to creating the educational strategy to promote social inclusion with the support of the educational agencies of the community In the first stage of the strategy, there were diagnosed the potential contributors of the interventional process, as well as the functioning of educational and community agencies that could subsequently guarantee the sustainability of the project and that could collaborate, in a second part of the project, when the Pre-professional practices would be developed in the community In the second stage, all the professionals who would assist the beneficiaries were trained, and who would later contribute to the professional training of the university students The third stage was dedicated to executing the planned intervention process, and the fourth stage to assess the evolution of children, adolescents, families and other educational agents who had participated in the experience In parallel, a game system for cognitive stimulation was created in children and adolescents with multi-disabilities It was taken as an advantage the technological potential of a group of prototypes whose operation stimulated the development of sensory systems 40 games were devised that favored basal stimulation, cognitive processes, as well as the participation of the family and the community in 72 Inclusive Education in the University satisfying the development needs of children and adolescents The results in its application determined the need to implement, from the university training process, the attention to multi-disabilities and the training of graduates to prepare educational agencies to promote educational and social inclusion The application of a user survey in this first part of the experience revealed a high degree of satisfaction of parents, relatives and specialists with respect to the work done by the professionals of the University of Cuenca The second part of this project consisted in implementing in pre-professional practices the work with the multi-disabilities and with the community When evaluating the results, the students expressed a high degree of satisfaction in relation to their preparation and the skills and tools that they should acquire and possess to solve the latent problems of their community and exercise as professionally as possible In this way, it was highlighted the fulfillment of the mission of the university as a producer not only of knowledge, but of an action, in this case teaching, for the solution of problems at a community level This enriched the academic process by being incorporated into the student curriculum In the experience conducted at the University of Guayaquil it was achieved that, from the subject of Community Intervention and Popular Education I, students were prepared to transform the community with their influence A Psychosocial intervention strategy for working with children with vulnerability to child abuse was developed The work was deployed in the non-profit Foundation “New Course of Community Artisan Workers” (NURTAC) located in the western suburb of the City of Guayaquil This organization aims to strengthen the capacities of people in extreme poverty in the most vulnerable and excluded sectors of Ecuador It is important to highlight that the main problem identified was social disadvantage It limited harmonious development and affected the quality of life with educational, economic, legal, social and family implications Its prevention, detection, care and monitoring are a high priority at an international level It was then necessary for the proposed intervention to consider the social needs contextualized in the bio-psychosocial reality, the specific components of community intervention and popular education in the population studied The vulnerability indices and the community actions that could be carried out were also considered, to guarantee the transformation towards healthier lifestyles The strategy was developed in four moments: initially it was analyzed the related thing to the mistreatment to the early childhood and from here instruments were designed and applied to favored the identification of the cases that need intervention The students developed the instruments for the initial diagnosis It should be noted that this was strengthened with the application of community mapping, provided by the subject of Health Psychology For the psychological study, the students applied a group of projective techniques such as the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Test, the Family Drawing, the Thought Inventory, and the Family Functioning Questionnaire The social study was done through an interview that led to the completion of the data from the psychosocial file An observation guide was also applied to verify the environmental conditions Subsequently, individual actions with each family were conceived, executed and evaluated The intervention strategy was designed, it was conformed of four stages: diagnosis, intervention, implementation and systematization of experiences This work had the peculiarity that from its inception it was supported by the pedagogical principle of linking theory with practice, improved again from the theoretical and applied in practice again, but strengthened This principle contributed to the PreProfessional Practices constituting for students a laboratory of meaningful and metacognitive learning Finally, it was verified the degree of satisfaction of them with respect to the intervention of university students and the work done in general by the university 73 Inclusive Education in the University Due to this, the 26 families that participated in the study and the members of the NURTAC Foundation were surveyed 100% revealed a high degree of satisfaction with social management and with attention to the needs of children The intervention resulted in a reduction in family dysfunction, child abuse, situations of abandonment, physical and verbal violence and under-stimulation of children The work done by the students of the university contributed to their academic reputation, positioning and social recognition This project strengthened the academic digital brand because it also socialized through the networks and the university portal where students shared their experiences in these pre-professional practices To solve the labor insertion problems of people with disabilities, a project called UNEMI Jobs was created at the University of Milagro This favored the establishment of alliances with companies, public and private institutions that were offered training in terms of assuming the social responsibility of employing people with disabilities and creating, for this, all necessary and sufficient conditions It was also managed the creation of new work alternatives in accordance with the development conditions of the hired persons with disabilities On the other hand, the university created alliances and defined policies to ensure that this guidance service to employers be maintained In this sense, agreements with companies were signed, the Community Engagement projects were restructured through pre-professional Practices They were intentionally directed for preparing the person with disability for the job These contents were subsequently included in the academic training An employment registry was established from the university’s website to socialize with students the possible functions and work centers that would welcome young people with disabilities It contributed to improve the preparation that everyone needed, both the young person with disabilities and the employer Verifying the results obtained, after a survey to the directors who manage the labor insertion process, it was found that 80% of the proposed cases to incorporate into labor world had achieved it, but only a permanence of 70% was accomplished The most affected people were those with visual and physical disabilities It demonstrates that this work should continue to be performed until reaching the highest possible labor integration rates, based on the preparation of the young person and the employer This process must also involve students who are trained in the university as a necessary action that will favor the development of professional skills and social inclusion of people with disabilities In order to solve the problems related to the lack of specialists that will give assistance to the people with special educational needs associated or not with disability, a study of the demand and the relevance of the professional preparation in Special Education was conducted in the University of Milagro This demonstrated the need to design a career that will train specialists with professional skills to solve the detected difficulties The design of the career responded to the creation of a multi and interdisciplinary curriculum based on neuroscientific, sociological, psychological, pedagogical, didactic and legal foundations of attention to educational diversity, mainly to special educational needs Its approach was inclusive and inter-sectoral and work was proposed with the different age groups, from early childhood children to older adults with disabilities It was presented and approved by the Higher Education Council (CES) of Ecuador It has been a year from implementation with results not only from undergraduate but also from postgraduate One of the actions that were developed in this regard to meet the needs of professionals who attend to disability, but not necessarily have pre-professional training was the International Congress of Neurosciences applied to Reading and Writing, which took place from September 4th to 6th, 2019 at UNEMI In an online survey to the participants, it was possible to verify the high degree of satisfaction shown around what this meeting contributed to professional performance, based on the dissemination of the 74 Inclusive Education in the University scientific results obtained at the center when learning new pedagogical strategies for performance that facilitate educational inclusion, the inclusion of ICTs in this process, the importance of conducting forums between teachers and academics, the design and application of focus groups on educational inclusion, support for pre-professional practices and the stimulation of educational investigation In the same way, it was verified the impact of other actions developed by UNEMI that contribute to inclusive education based on the use of the educational platform of the university As it can be seen in the three experiences that took place in Ecuador, there is a tendency towards attention to special educational needs that has led to the dissemination and strengthening of the academic brand of each university with an emphasis on UNEMI The actions described have contributed to the positioning of each of the universities in each particular context and in general, in Ecuador Referred to case and aware of the needs identified in young people with intellectual disabilities, professors from the Enrique José Varona University of Pedagogical Sciences, together with a group of specialists in Psychopedagogy from the health area, where these young people received medical and psychological care, executed a research project that determined to influence the following elements of communication: • • • • • Development of communicative intentionality Use of different codes for communication related to the communicative context and with the information that is wanted to be transmitted in an integrated and coherent way Integration, in the communicative process, of the informative, the regulatory and the affective Development of a communicative response behavior Transformation of the participants in the communication process It was decided, as a consequence of the impact they have on people’s lives and for constituting an invaluable communicative tool to use audiovisual materials, which not only contribute to developing these communicative elements, but also become regulators of young people’s behavior and disseminators of the university’s work in this regard In this sense, a series of three audiovisual materials dedicated to the works with young people from the university were made and other already done materials were used to contribute to the development of communication These actions strengthened the work of the university in the community giving it prestige and reaching a position in the work of the university extension This research also contributed to strengthening the academic preparation of students, from the Educational Technology subject in the attention to special educational needs, where professional skills are developed to use ICT in the development of communication and language, among others aspects It was also considered that the University specialists trained a group of community managers in the use of other technologies such as information technology that would promote the development, in addition to communication, of academic processes such as reading and writing This work allowed educating agents in the community to be made aware of the need to work to promote the development of people with intellectual disabilities and their families It also enabled the university professors to update their educational practice and to recognize the felt problems of the locality regarding the attention to special educational needs It made it possible to distinguish university work and position the work of the center for higher studies at a regional and national level It was also considered that the University specialists trained a group of community managers in the use of other technologies such as information technology that would promote the development, in addition to communication, of academic processes such as reading and writing This work allowed educating 75 Inclusive Education in the University agents in the community to be made aware of the need to work to promote the development of people with intellectual disabilities and their families It also enabled the university professors to update their educational practice and to recognize the felt problems of the locality regarding the attention to special educational needs It made it possible to distinguish university work and position the work of the center for higher studies at a regional and national level In the case of study 3, the results of the applied survey allowed to define the contents of the postgraduate course for university professors A program designed to generate a change in the preparation of professors who serve students with special educational needs associated or not with disabilities was designed at the University of Havana, in order to guarantee quality educational care The course was named “The preparation of university professors for the attention to student diversity.” It was a 150 hours course The topics to work were aimed at: • • • • Educational inclusion in higher education The training and role of university professors in the care of students with special educational needs associated or not to disabilities University and inclusive education Visual, hearing, motor, and autism spectrum disorder in university classrooms To develop this academic activity, which by its structure and content constitutes a postgraduate course, it began a diagnostic survey, an aspect that allowed us to verify the knowledge, attitudes and levels of involvement of professors The development of the postgraduate course was mainly based on the use of audiovisual materials, which promoted the debate through different forms of organization: face-to-face (with conferences, workshops, panels, round tables, practical activities; and online (using synchronous and asynchronous media.) In this sense, the Moodle platform was used for professors to work in a virtual way and thus also contribute to the development of the academic digital brand The results obtained were focused on the preparation of the professor who attends students with special educational needs associated or not to disabilities, as well as the improvement of an institutional theoretical and practical framework around an inclusive culture that promoted educational inclusion at the University of La Havana The conception and development of the postgraduate course led to a better preparation of professors to meet the challenges of diversity in the classrooms, with emphasis on those who had special educational needs associated or not to disability FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS The relevance of the academic digital brand is one of the problems that involves universities and to which special attention must be paid Beyond orienting towards digital positioning in networks, the brand must be enhanced and supported by the contributions, derived from its trends, that not only from academics, but from research and social management make the university to social development in the different areas of intervention 76 Inclusive Education in the University For these reasons, the academic digital brand must be understood as the media construction of the process generating and disseminating the social transformations that have emerged in the university environment that characterize and distinguish research, academic, community work of each higher education center The digital dissemination of the actions and of all the work and the results generated in the university, have of course a vital importance in the positioning of each institution, in the creation of alliances that allow its consolidation and the improvement of its work The fundamental problem is that, if visibility is important, the work accomplished by the university in solving problems and improving people’s lives is even more important In that case, the digital brand must be supported and accompanied by all the management achieved in the university, based fundamentally on the research and scientific activity, which then enhances the academic training This should start guaranteeing human well-being, satisfying people’s needs and focusing on solving problems related to justice and social equity, which at the moment constitutes a brake for the full development of humanity It is imminent that university work which legitimizes and predisposes social life, as it forms generations for cultural transformation, have a leading role in the field of inclusive education It is precisely the most significant axiological task of the university nowadays It is time that any university that aspires to be positioned has a recognized work around social inclusion and had generated trends in action around this The design not only of content but of the management of its processes and university life must be based on this principle It is imposed the implementation in the models of strategies formation that promote educational, social inclusion and in all areas of life The experiences shown here, although they have contributed to the improvement of work in the university, they are not sufficiently articulated with neither the university training model nor all the actions develop in these centers The limitations are that they have been developed based on needs that have been identified within the narrow framework of the professional performance of the researchers and not from university policy, which is dedicated to apparently more shocking issues, such as the technological development of the centers Among other limitations are that the specialists who currently work as professors or researchers, despite being willing to carry out inclusive processes, they are not prepared to develop them, since they demand not only competencies for identification and intervention in case of educational, psychological needs or any other kind of expertise of the students, but of a deep didactic preparation to ensure that all students learn in an environment of equity and not equality It is necessary then to assume the challenge that, in order to aim for an inclusive society and an inclusive education, the inclusive university, whose training model is based on this basic principle, must first be enhanced The university is called to be the protagonist of social changes, so its mission and functions must undergo a process of analysis and restructuring CONCLUSION The theoretical study carried out and the deepening in the work of university practice, as well as the results achieved in the exposed experiences, confirm the need to improve the conceptions that today are handled around the academic digital brand 77 Inclusive Education in the University It should not only respond to the visual, communicational and media aspect, but also to a university policy that distinguishes its management from the rest of the universities contributing to social transformation since the solution of the problems in its scope of action The articulation of its substantive functions in this sense acquires a remarkable role The contexts studied reveal the need to continue deepening in effective mechanisms that contribute to meet the special educational needs associated or not to disability that occur both in the university students as in the people who will receive or receive the service of the professionals that the university forms Likewise, it is essential that the social management of the university be projected effectively to solve the hidden problems in the community where it is inserted and for which future professionals are trained In accordance with the functions and responsibility that the university, as an academic, research and change-generating institution from the social field currently has, it is necessary to rethink the model of its management and training, it is necessary to rethink the model of its management and training, which must be materialized in good education practices and inclusive actions This should generate university trends that are specified in the research and training of undergraduate and graduate The research implemented demonstrates how to contribute to the academic digital brand and university positioning Since the visibility and treatment of the existing situation, as well as the implementation of certain interventional strategies, the needs of the context were met This improved the reputation of the universities studied and contributed to the fulfillment of their functions REFERENCES Ainscow, M (1999) Development of inclusive schools Ideas, proposal and experiences to improve school institutions Madrid: Academic Press Arnaiz, P (1996) Schools are for everybody Siglo Cero, 27(2), 25–34 Climent, J A., & Navarro, Y (2017) Branding and reputation: Basic pillars of online visibility of professors in higher education Revista Iberoamericana de Educación Superior, 8(21), 66–76 Colectivo de autores (2003) For life: Psychosocial study of people with disabilities and psycho-pedagogical, social and clinical-genetic study of people with intellectual disability in Cuba La Habana: Author Del Pino, A (2018) Academic e-branding applied to higher education (Tesis doctoral) Valencia: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia Del Pino, A D., & Lloret, N (2018) Analysis of visibility of the university e-branding of Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral from Ecuador and Universitat Politècnica de València from Spain Revista Chakiđan, 6, 118–135 Del Río, J., Cardona, D., & Simancas, R (2017) Proposal of a theoretical model of branding for the positioning of the university brand Revista Espacios, 38(53), 34–47 Larrea, E., & Granados, V (2013) The higher education system for the society of good living based on knowledge: the Ecuadorian case (tesis de maestría) Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil Guayaquil: Guayas 78 Inclusive Education in the University Ministerio de Salud Pública de la República de Cuba Dirección Nacional de Atención al Adulto Mayor y Asistencia Social (2010) National program for the care of people with intellectual disabilities La Habana: Author Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (2008) International Education Conference Ginebra: Author Registro Oficial Órgano del gobierno del Ecuador (2010) Ley Orgánica de Educación Superior Quito, Pichincha Retrieved from http://www.oei.es/historico/quipu/ecuador/LEY_EDUCACION_SUPERIOR pdf Secretaría Nacional de Planificación y Desarrollo de la República del Ecuador (2013) National Development Plan / National Plan for Good Living 2013-2017 Quito, Pichincha Retrieved from http:// www.buenvivir.gob.ec/69 Secretaría Nacional de Planificación y Desarrollo de la República del Ecuador (2017) National Plan for Good Living (2017-2021) Quito, Pichincha Retrieved from www.planificacion.gob.ec/wp /2017/10/ PNBV-26-OCT-FINAL_0K.compressed1.pdf ADDITIONAL READING Figueroa, M (2015) A system of games to cognitive stimulation in children and adolescents with multidisabilities in Ecuador Varona, 60, 47-53 Retrieved from https://sga.unemi.edu.ec/media/evidenciasiv/2017/02/01/articulo_201721121059.pdf Figueroa, M (in press) Human rights and culture of peace in the mediation of conflicts between adolescents, teachers and parents in El Guayas, Ecuador Clarivate Analytics Figueroa, M., Alonso, L., Vázquez, G., Guerra, S., & Bravo, R N (2017) Estrategia de intervención psicosocial direccionada a niđos vulnerabilidad desde el maltrato infantil en la primera infancia en la comunidad Revista Dilemas Contemporáneos: Educación, Política y Valores, 1(5), 1-22 Retrieved from http://files.dilemascontemporaneoseducacionpoliticayvalores.com/200003596-1f5a920555/17-9-25.%20 Estrategia%20de%20intervenci%C3%B3n%20psicosocial%20direccionada%20a pdf Figueroa, M., Campoverde, M A., & Calle, S G (2015) Early intervention in children with neurodevelopmental disorders from the multisensory room A challenge in the Ecuadorian academy Latin American Journal of Computing, 2(3), 55-62 Retrieved from https://lajc.epn.edu.ec/index.php/LAJC/ article/view/96/57 Figueroa, M., Vázquez, G., & Castro, G J (2018) Practical theoretical contributions aimed at the sociolabor insertion of children, adolescents and young people with disabilities from the State University of Milagro (UNEMI) Revista Dilemas Contemporáneos: Educación Política y Valores, 6, 1–21 Figueroa, M., Vázquez, G., Ron, M E., Borja, E., Castro, G., & Plúas, R M (2019) Professionals training for educational attention to schoolchildren with special educational needs in undergraduate: Study of its relevance at the State University of Milagro Revista Inclusiones, 6, 181–194 79 Inclusive Education in the University Méndez, I (2018, Octubre) The postgraduate course as a way for the preparation in educational inclusion to professors of the University of Havana Paper presented at the meeting of the 5th Congreso Científico Educacional Investigación para la Innovación de las Ciencias, Guayaquil, Guayas Méndez, I (2019, Abril) The preparation of professors in educational inclusion at the University of Havana Paper presented at the 5th International Congress of Pedagogical Sciences of Ecuador, Guayaquil, Guayas KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Academic Reputation: Social recognition that the university has in its academic work based on the actions it performs and socializes, and for which it is identified in a given context Currently it is essential that this socialization is done using networks and digital technology Disability: A condition of development that implies certain restrictions in the activity, communication and relationships of people with the surrounding context Inclusion: Policy and practice that in the field of human life implies socialization and respectful, peaceful, fair coexistence, with well-being and happiness of all human beings in a context of equity Inclusive Culture: Process and result of the articulation and application of knowledge, skills and values related to the satisfaction of people’s needs and stimulation of their potential to achieve maximum educational, labor, social inclusion, etc Multiple Disability: Combination of restrictions of various kinds that suppose a condition of development in the person with multiple needs Preprofessional Practices: Higher education subject that contributes to the development of competencies for the solution of problems identified in the possible labor scenarios of the student It constitutes an integrating and structuring axis of the subjects of the career Special Educational Needs: Educational demands that require the creation, structuring, application, and evaluation of supports and aids that guarantee the development of the person based on their potential Substantive Functions of the University: Institutional capacity to perform tasks and actions related to academia, research, and social management in a synergistic way Supports and Aids: Strategies and resources that are planned in order to promote the development of the person in an integral way 80