Percepción de rechazo entre iguales hacia niños con necesidades educativas especiales de educación general básica media de la Unidad Educativa Carlos Rigoberto Vintimilla en Cuenca, periodo 2022-2023

Abstract

Social rejection is one of the biggest problems impacting coexistence within educational institutions, especially seen when a student requires additional educational assistance. Studies conducted about the rejection from the student body towards students with different special educational needs have shown that the perception about students with disabilities considerably affects the socio-emotional and cognitive development in said group. Therefore, this study’s main purpose is to define the perceptions had about discriminatory attitudes against the students with special educational needs in the general basic middle school education during the 2022-2023 period. The study has a qualitative lens, with a phenomenological design and descriptive scope. The participants are students in 5th, 6th, and 7th graders of General Basic Middle School Education, from the Educational Unit “Carlos Rigoberto Vintimilla”, which were selected through convenience sampling. As a result, it was obtained that, at a general level, coexistence between peers is characterized by harmony, solidarity, empathy and companionship, so there is no rejection of children who present some type of disability or difficulty in their learning process. On the other hand, to a lesser extent it is evident that there is a certain distrust towards students who come from other countries, when establishing a friendship relationship, since there are negative thoughts towards them.