Who is the one I find different from me?

Abstract

Difference and Diversity are concepts upon which inclusive school development should be rooted. However, when one talks about difference, the meaning attributed to that concept assumes a great spectrum of possible explanations, certainly based on individual experience and one’s framework of analysis, expressed through a particular world view. The main goal of this research project is to understand how school children and youngsters conceive difference, in other words, what kind of characteristics are stressed when they describe someone they find much different from them and what kind of relationships they think possible to establish with that person. The population was chosen among children and youngsters of all the public schools of Beja (Portugal), constituting three age groups of 9, 12 and 15 years old. In this research we used the written narrative as a method of analysis. What is proposed in this paper is to discuss some of the preliminary results and reflect upon some questions raised, which may bring a different perspective on inclusive education.