Evaluation of the managerial process in the interaction of students with functional diversity in the university environment

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to build a theoretical corpus on the vision of the emerging reality of the managerial process of interaction of students with disabilities in the university environment. For this purpose, the research was based on the interpretative paradigm, qualitative approach, and the epistemological position was based on the conception of knowledge as a social construction, directed by the phenomenological method and supported by hermeneutics with the purpose of interpreting and understanding the meanings created by the social actors from their frames of reference on the phenomenon in an intersubjective environment. An in-depth interview was used as a technique to collect the information, applied to five social actors: two university educational directors; two students with some diversity; and a university professor. The information processing was systematized through codification, categorization and triangulation, where categories associated with the reality of the managerial process of interaction of students with disabilities in the university environment were formulated. A theoretical approach was established from the results unveiled from the voices of the social actors, and categorically in combination with the theory, it was evidenced the imperative need to be trained, both teachers and the student population, to keep in constant learning and update the knowledge bases in relation to the management of students with functional diversity. This led to reflect on the existing collaborative actions that should take place in the educational community, since they are the main actors who, by definition, interact with people with different abilities.