Facilitators for inclusive education: rethinking schools from the experience of young people with intellectual disabilities in Spain

Although compulsory education is a reality for students between the ages of 6 and 16 in Spain, the search for a single quality system for all and success for all continues to be a concern for the Spanish education system and an ongoing issue after successive educational reforms. The aim of this article is to present the facilitators for educational inclusion identified by 30 young people with intellectual disabilities between the ages of 19 and 30 in Spain. Using a biographical-narrative methodology, these young people review and reflect on their educational trajectories, from primary school to university. The participants identified factors related to the teaching staff, pupils, and the curriculum which helped them in their learning and contributed to their feeling of being part of the educational institution, especially in the very last years of their educational training. The facilitators outlined above could be key to rethinking some decision-making in schools.