This work reflects the importance and responsibility of the school to respond to the needs of the entire school population. Specifically, a research paper is presented that focuses on the rural school setting, with the purpose of exploring inclusive education practices in this type of school.

Rural schools have great value for their environment since they constitute an important element within the institutional structure of a certain territory. In addition, families in rural communities generally collaborate in everything that the school makes them participate in. However, in order for this relationship of cooperation and complicity to occur, teachers must feel really committed to the social and natural framework that surrounds them and become aware of the need to incorporate it into their pedagogical work (Boix, 2014). Achieving this commitment of teachers is an important challenge for the management teams of rural schools with a high rate of variation of teachers since this fact poses an important handicap to design and carry out educational projects for the center due to the lack of continuity of the team that has to implement them.

The construction of an inclusive school, which ensures the presence, participation and success of all its students requires promoting, also in rural settings, changes in various fields: cultures, policies and practices. An inclusive school, which is oriented to an inclusive society, also needs to establish measures for the protection and training of people and groups that are in a situation of greater vulnerability and at risk of educational and social exclusion by reason of origin, ethnicity, language, economic and social situation, sexual orientation, gender identity or sexual characteristics, discrimination or violence, which are subject to exclusionary pressures or that encounter barriers in access, presence, participation and learning.

These changes should have teachers as an axis and engine. There are several studies on teaching competences (Cano, 2005). From an inclusive education approach, the competences we consider appropriate to train teachers are strategic competences, along with innovation and creativity, reflection and self-criticism (Fernández, 2013). For this, we have to take as a reference a permanent training and reflection of the skills to investigate, update, energize, employ creativity, lead, promote self-concept, open to change, etc. It is about improving the quality of education with equity, to respond to the demands of the educational field, through innovation processes and the implementation of projects and tasks based on active methodologies.

All these competences are related to the empowerment of teachers and shared teaching leadership, key factors for the improvement of teaching-learning processes, school results and the relational climate of educational institutions. Teacher empowerment must be enhanced and promoted by the management teams (González et al., 2019). All this involves training reflective and critical professionals in their daily tasks, capable of implementing changes to improve the center and its educational practice. It is about linking the teaching profession not only with a series of rights, but also responsibilities. Our proposal aims, from continuing education, to generate teacher empowerment through a better knowledge of their educational reality, the implementation of more innovative methodologies from action research, promoting the inclusion of all students in the center, reflection on practice, the preparation of a reception plan for new teachers, with the intention of generating a structure that enhances the sustainability of the project in the long term, enhancing the connection with the community environment.

We are in a qualitative research approach (Tójar, 2006), given that in rural schools, the ideal conditions for working according to principles of inclusion are given. As research procedures/strategies we have used participant observation, informal conversations and interviews (Angrosino, 2012). The intervention in the context of the rural school (CRA) has been carried out with the accompaniment of the center's training advisor. This project has been oriented, first, towards a redefinition of the Educational Project of the center and the realization of a more inclusive pedagogical proposal that contemplates active methodologies, focused on student learning. Secondly, the establishment of a plan to favor the reception and commitment of teachers to be incorporated at the beginning of the course. This experience arises in five phases / moments: 1. Request for advice. The center requested help from its training advisor to carry out a pedagogical change. 2. Analysis of reality, diagnosis and proposal of action. The classrooms were visited and meetings were held with the management team and the rest of the teaching staff to finalize a proposal for action. 3. Training plan. A seminar has been planned in the framework of the Training in Centers that the Educational Administration convenes every year. The intention is to create times / spaces for dialogue and reflection in which teachers analyze who they are, what needs they have and in what context they are. It is essential that they connect with the needs and potential of their community and discuss the pedagogical model that each one has in mind and learn about successful research and inclusive experiences carried out in other centers (establishing center networks). All this as a previous step to the construction of a common Educational Project that support the school life of the CRA. 4. Preparation of the Reception Plan and teacher support. In parallel to the training, the plan that facilitates the incorporation of new members to the team will be defined, leaving it prepared to be implemented the following course. 5. Assessment of experience, conclusions and proposals for improvement. Throughout the process we will collect data that allow us to draw conclusions and prepare a final report of the experience.

The development of this experience aims to initiate, among the teachers of the center, a collaborative process of professional development that empowers them and, at the same time, that leads to the improvement of the educational quality of the CRA. For this, it has been decided to create spaces for research and analysis of the action itself that bring into play the features that facilitate adult learning, which, according to Vaillant and Marcelo (2015), are: commitment, involvement, autonomy, overcoming resistance, motivation and trust. In addition, the process will provide the management team with various technical skills that will enable them to lead people in a more “intelligent” way, such as motivating, organizing effective meetings or resolving conflicts, among others (Bazarra and Casanova, 2013). Finally, each teacher will acquire the necessary tools to organize and manage their classroom in an appropriate way to favor the participation and learning of all their students (Whitaker, Whitaker, and Whitaker, 2018). In short, the teacher must be the engine of change in schools, promoting participation and dialogue. Teacher empowerment and leadership in communities that are committed to inclusion, such as the CRA in which they have worked, must be based on three key axes: a) Initial and continuous training: focused on the humanistic, reflexive and socio-critical paradigms. The latter understands education as a process of individual and collective emancipation aimed at social transformation. b) Enhancement of action research, which seeks to respond to collective problems from direct intervention, promoting substantial changes and research that promote the improvement of teaching processes, seeking to transfer the results obtained to the classroom (Melero, 2011 ; Colmenares, 2012). c) Establishment of networks of centers, networks of trust and support, with the aim of disseminating good practices and initiatives generated by teachers (González et al., 2019).

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