The present work investigates the school principal’s role in the construction of an inclusive schooling culture. The approach is theoretically based on Vigotski´s cultural-historical psychology. The research aims to establish relationships between the school democratization process and the implantation of an inclusive school culture, through the school principal’s action. It was considered the hypothesis that the principal exerts decisive influence on the way the school culture is constituted, what can facilitate or not the school inclusion. The research includes the concepts of school culture, inclusive education and inclusive environment as a way of establishing the school’s context relevance to the school inclusion of students with special needs. The research was conducted as a case study, and procedures as the researcher’s report, paper analysis and an interview with the principal of the school were used. Bardin’s method of content analysis was employed to analyze the data collected. Results favored the conclusion that the managing democratization process and the inclusive education are related in a very important way, suggesting that an inclusive school is, above all, a democratic school.
School inclusion; Educational management; School environment; Cultural-historical psychology
