Leading inclusive educational communities to promote inclusive and active play

Book excerpt: As explained in more detail throughout this book, the link between the environment and the school constitutes a relationship of mutual interdependence that is paramount for meeting the challenge of implementing inclusion as a guiding principle for action. In order to build inclusive cultures, the actions proposed by the education centre must be reflected and have continuity outside the school walls, so that they are not disconnected from reality and children and youth can internalise and generalise them in a natural and logical manner. Because as Wenger et al (2021) show, children’s experiences indicate that children with disabilities are not included in the play of children without disabilities and vice versa (there is an invisible social barriers and the perfection of ‘us and them’), as well as the segregation between children with and without disabilities caused by the school system might continue, even unintentionally, on the inclusive playgrounds.