Differentiated pedagogy and universal design for learning to support curricular accessibility

Abstract

A school for all is conceived through the democratization of education, and the development of pedagogical practices that promote curricular accessibility is necessary. From this perspective, the theoretical and conceptual propositions of Philippe Meirieu's Differentiated Pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can assist in this process. This article's guiding question is: "How do the conceptual propositions of Differentiated Pedagogy and UDL converge and enable curricular accessibility?" The aim is to find connections between the principles of these two theoretical and conceptual propositions that enable the promotion of curricular accessibility in pedagogical practices. The research is a theoretical study with a qualitative and exploratory approach. The points of interlocution between the theoretical and conceptual propositions lie in the circulation of desire present in the Pedagogical Relationship and Engagement, considering the importance of awakening and maintaining in students the drive to learn about the presented subject. The alignment between the principle of representation and the didactic approach, which provides for ways of interacting with knowledge—that is, the different forms of access. Recognizing learning strategies and providing different forms of action and expression of what has been understood are ways to assess students' knowledge development. These propositions are interconnected by focusing on educability (Meirieu, 1998) and the success of everyone's learning. Believing in everyone's potential means maintaining high expectations of success for all students (CAST, 2018) and promoting diverse ways to develop skills in all subjects in school.