There are numerous indicators about a progressive increase in inequality in Spain in recent years (FOESSA, 2021).  This is a trend which is not different in other EU countries (OCDE, 2021). Spain is among the EU countries with the greatest income inequality, with an alarming number of youth who neither study nor work (early leavers from education and training), and an elevated index of risk of poverty in the working-age population (AROPE, 2021).

The picture of this environment is worrying. The academic segregation index has increased 13.4% in the last 10 years, which puts Spain in 6th position in the European ranking with the highest points, above the EU average (Save the Children, 2018). But as research showed school level analysis does not show the full picture of exclusions. which causes  are socio-historical, diverse and complex and intersect with each other (Daniels et al, 2019)

Education policy discourses around the world consider inclusive education as a key strategy to address inequalities. Indeed, inclusive education has become a priority debate on national and international levels, at the top of national education policy agendas. But texts and discourses are part of a policy towards inclusion that in any social or educational context are read, heard, thought, felt, behaved and valued in specific ways by different actors in different contexts as  Ball (205) pointed out. This shows that focusing on policies aimed at promoting inclusion and reducing exclusion is a complex task asking for a critical and comprehensive lens to research it. 

The purpose of the research presented in this paper  is to understand how policies and practices of school exclusion and inclusion are contested and represented by different social and educational agents. To follow this aim a multi-vocal, multi-site and multi-level analysis of educational policies and practices is being developed to analyze the regional policies of inclusion and exclusion in Galicia (an autonomous community in the north west of Spain). The research is also committed with increasing citizen participation in identifying and searching for solutions oriented towards societal challenges through new formats which allow crossing borders and maintaining an open dialogue between science and society.

The research design is inspired by participative methodology. It follows the idea that research should be a critical and collaborative participation process which distances itself from the views of the representatives of the elite regarding participation. It proposes an approach which rejects participation as merely the application of participative strategies and demands reflexive action in terms laid out by Bauman (2002) with a clearly emancipatory intentionality. In such a way this research is a project resulting in the collective participation of individuals involved in revision, analytical, and change processes in order to collaboratively create new discourses on education. The design of the study is articulated around two main phases that involve the participation of a wide sample of participants belonging to different social and educational groups. In this paper we will refer to the work done in the first of these phases with a sample of families (parents and/or mothers) who were invited to reflect and narrate their experiences, beliefs and perspectives on how the current educational policy of the Galician community affected the schooling of their children. The objective of this phase is the creation of a report based on collaborative methodology in which experts, professionals and other agents in the field of educational inclusion-exclusion as well as citizens will participate. With all this participants we are trying to establish a map on the regional state of policies on educational exclusion and inclusion, through a participatory research process. In order to create this report, a collaborative and multi-argumentative research procedure and writing is being followed. The starting point was an initial and descriptive report on regional exclusion/inclusion carried out by the research team. The report is based on evidence (statistics, regional norms, published reports, news, etc.) and complemented by other data obtained from primary sources. This document is used to dialogue in the form of an interview or autonomous writing with each of the previously selected interviewees. In this paper we present and discuss the analysis, reflections and of 6 families that were selected following a snowball sampling method. In each case they participate in an in depth interview based on the aforementioned report debating and providing new perspectives to it. Data analysis of recorded interviews and narrations is being developed following a content analysis of discourse (Mayring, 2000) that is, once developed, negotiated with the informants families.

We are currently at the stage of analysing the data obtained, although we perceive a certain tendency for families to identify some common barriers and gaps in how the policy and legislations is understood and being developed. For example, in terms of access to school that is a key principle in the regional legislation they identify some competing tensions, contradictions and gaps that permits schools to avoid the presence of students identified as having SEN. In this way under an inclusive legislation, the exclusion of some students is blessed based on arguments as "the good of the child" or the lack of school resources. Also the existence of special schools is understood as a contradiction that preserves and maintains the status quo of ordinary schools. But the bigger concern expressed by families is related to how family participation is limited and restricted in the legislation and in practice. They denounce the lack of participation in the decision making when a special placement is proposed for a student. In this way they denounce a symbolic participation that does not fit with democratic and social-justice stated ideals. The family information is then reformulating and enriching the normative and questioning how it is applied in practice. Also their analysis, when is crossed with the analysis of other participantes, is showing how it is possible for professionals, and agents with different educational histories and working in different settings to collaborate to design a multi-perspective map able to increase our understanding and priorities of how to go ahead in the promotion of educational inclusion.

Ball, S. (2005) EDucational Policy and Social class. London: Routledge Daniels, H., Thompson, I. y Tawell, A. (2019). Prácticas de exclusión en culturas escolares inclusivas en Reino Unido. Publicaciones, 49(3), 23-36. https://doi.org/10.30827/publicaciones.v49i3.11402 EAPN (2020). El estado de la pobreza. Seguimiento del indicador de Pobreza y Exclusión Social en España 2008-2020. Madrid: EAPN-ES https://www.eapn.es/estadodepobreza/ARCHIVO/documentos/informe-AROPE-2021-contexto-nacional.pdf Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative Content Analysis [28 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Art. 20, http://nbnresolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0002204. OECD (2021). Developments in individual OECD and selected non-members economies. Economic Outlook, Volume 2021 Issue 2