Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 19 RETHINKING DIVERSITY AND PARTICIPATION THROUGH PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN INCLUSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Dr. Amaka Chinyere Nwosu Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Keywords: Learning; Inclusion; Special Pedagogy, Physical Activity, Educational Equity, Diversity ABSTRACT This paper explores the transformative role of inclusive physical education in fostering equitable learning environments that promote participation, social integration, and personal development for all students. Emphasizing the Italian educational context, it highlights how inclusive practices in motor activity support a collaborative alliance between schools, families, and communities, valuing diversity as a resource. Physical education emerges not just as a subject, but as a pedagogical approach that nurtures holistic growth and combats exclusion. Introduction In recent decades, one of the most prominent and evolving themes in the field of education has been the pursuit of inclusiveness within schools. School inclusiveness is achieved when educational environments are structured to ensure the success of all students—none excluded—regardless of their individual differences or specific needs. An inclusive school is not one that simply accommodates diversity, but one that intentionally designs its practices, environments, and teaching strategies with every learner in mind. It focuses on modifying contexts and approaches rather than attempting to change the individual, thus creating educational spaces that are equitable, supportive, and empowering. In the Italian educational system, inclusiveness has become a central objective, with current pedagogical and didactic guidelines emphasizing the value of diversity as a vital resource. These guidelines promote the idea that diversity should not be viewed as a limitation, but as an opportunity to enhance the learning experience for all. In such a vision, every student has the right to personalize and individualize their learning journey, with particular attention given to those who face learning or participation barriers. Historically, Italy has made significant strides in inclusive education, starting with the closure of special schools under Law 517/1977, which led to the integration of students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms. Initially referred to as "insertion," this process was soon recognized as inadequate to capture the dynamic and interactive nature of inclusive education. The terminology evolved to "integration," emphasizing the active involvement of students with disabilities in classroom learning alongside their peers, facilitated by adapted materials, modified teaching approaches, and the support of specialized educators. True inclusiveness, however, requires the collaborative involvement of all educational stakeholders—teachers, school leaders, families, students, and local authorities. It demands a commitment to leveraging all available resources and educational opportunities to implement interventions that do not isolate or stigmatize, but rather embrace and harmonize the unique differences of each learner. The disabled classmate, in this context, is no longer seen as a passive recipient of support but as an active contributor to the educational community—a resource and even a strength for the class as a whole. Thus, the inclusive school becomes a microcosm of a fair and equitable society, one that upholds the dignity of every person and fosters the development of each student’s potential. It is through this inclusive vision that schools can truly fulfill their educational and social mission, preparing students not just for academic achievement but for life in a diverse and interconnected world. Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 20 From the mid-1990s, however, people began to question the value of the term "integration", which risked taking on negative, purely compensatory connotations, forgetting unique aspects related to the person, such as originality, authenticity, and freedom. The term "inclusion" was born, with the intention of highlighting a mutual permeability and exchange between pupils with different potentials within the same class. The concept of inclusiveness, as we understand it today, is therefore nothing more than the result of a slow and gradual evolution of the original concept of "tailor-made school", based on the centrality of the child, already typical of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Fröbel and Aporti, and which takes the form of innovative educational proposals and pedagogical theorizations by particularly significant pedagogues of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries attentive to learning environments and development psycho- cognitive and social, disability and the child's emotionality (Stentiford, & Koutsouris, 2021). Inclusion thus becomes a two-way phenomenon, in which not only the disabled classmate adapts to the behavior of the non-disabled classmates, but also the whole class must strive to adapt and understand the partner's disability, learning and changing through experience with people with disabilities and vice versa. The new term "inclusion", therefore, refers to a process, a philosophy of acceptance, such as the ability to provide a framework within which pupils can be equally valued, treated with respect and provided with equal opportunities. It is a comprehensive approach, not only centered on the individual disabled person, but which is aimed at all pupils and all their potential (Hansen, Carrington, Jensen, Molbæk, & Secher Schmidt, 2020). The inclusion of students with disabilities in Italian schools has been implemented for forty years in regular schools and normal classes and is achieved through the individualization and personalization of educational activities, starting from the differences and potential of each disabled student, valued in the context of the class group. Inclusion processes in schools The theme of inclusion, as argued so far, is certainly an issue that, especially in recent years, is crucial in the school context. Italy was among the first countries to choose the path of integration of pupils with disabilities in ordinary classes. We have therefore moved from a situation of complete exclusion to special schools intended exclusively for "different" children, to the integration of the same within the common classes up to the achievement of inclusion processes. Diversity cannot be considered an obstacle, but a fundamental resource for the whole class group and essential to promote learning processes. We can talk about inclusion only when everyone feels they are appreciated and their participation is not suffered but is instead welcome. The inclusive classroom is an important point of arrival for the school and the pupil with disabilities can take great advantage of the companion resource, an essential component not only cognitive, but also social and affective (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2017). The inclusive school is the one that allows all students not only to feel part of the group to which they belong, but also to reach the highest possible level thanks to those differences that allow everyone's growth, through a process of great personal enrichment. Inclusive teaching aims to create an inclusive climate, first respecting and accepting these diversities. The teaching staff will have to try to adapt their teaching style, also modifying their ongoing strategies and, if necessary, find points of connection between the programming. It will also have to always try to develop a cooperative approach (trying, for example, to use innovative methodologies such as cooperative learning and peer tutoring), enhancing the forms of expression and favoring the creation of relational networks between school, family, health specialists and territorial services. At the center of an inclusive educational action there is always the person because we are talking about an education for everyone, which can only lead to personalization. Moving from the logic of integration to that of inclusion does not simply Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 21 mean making room for everyone, but it means putting each student at the center of all educational action by rethinking what the concept of curriculum is. Among the general principles of inclusion we have, first, the acceptance of diversity, the development of collaborative practices, the active participation of all and a school that becomes different, that is, that learns and promotes change and development. Starting from some regulatory references, we can certify that our school system was the first in Europe to introduce the generalized school inclusion of pupils with disabilities and was not limited to this. With the subsequent issuance of specific guidelines, it has also clarified the principles relating to the inclusion of pupils with SLD (Specific Learning Disorders) to the point of giving organizational indications on the inclusion of those children who are not certifiable neither with disabilities nor with DSA, but who have specific learning difficulties due to personal, family and socio-environmental disadvantage. The synthesis of these choices can be found within the Legislative Decree of 13 April 2017, n.66, Rules for the promotion of school inclusion of students with disabilities, where it is stated that inclusion concerns everyone and responds to different educational needs by realizing itself through specific educational strategies aimed at developing the potential of each, improving their quality of life through the commitment of all those involved, from the school community, to families to local authorities, to achieve the educational success of all. Inclusion therefore takes the form of a route to follow, starting from the construction of contexts populated by multiple diversities and therefore by special needs. Special pedagogy promotes the appreciation of these diversities that are unique and that concern individuals. In this perspective, motor- sports activity can constitute that specific context in which it is possible to really experience inclusive education. The sporting experience, formative from an educational point of view, becomes a precious opportunity for active participation and equality of opportunity for all people. Both the playful and the athletic-motor dimension, closely interconnected with each other, give sport a high educational value. Within the motor-sports context we can identify a series of strongly educational elements such as: the continuous relationship with a reference adult, ie the coach; order, discipline, respect for the rules and others; teaching / learning of a particular sports discipline; the educational value of victory and defeat; the will to improve and motivation (Peacock, 2014). The practical experience of sport becomes of crucial importance for children with sociocultural and linguistic deficits or disadvantages, enriching the subjective processes of metacognition and generalization. Special Pedagogy must therefore focus strongly on sport because this tool, if supported by educational intentionality, within its planning in the school environment, can become an important context both from the point of view of values, through the acquisition of all those healthy teachings of which sports ethics is rich, and from the educational point of view, a fundamental piece in relation to the planning of life and Real practice of inclusion. Practicing regular motor-sports activities, for the person with disabilities, involves a series of advantages (Moliterni, 2013). On the cognitive level, we improve the knowledge of our body, the space that surrounds us, the management of time and speed, in relation to certain motor acts. On the physical level there are a series of benefits that concern the improvement of muscle strength, balance, motor coordination thanks. On a purely sporting level, technical knowledge in relation to the various sports disciplines and that of the regulations improves. On the psychological level, a sense of personal satisfaction is produced that favors discipline and training, leading to greater self control about emotional states. On the socio- educational level, levels of personal autonomy increase, with subjects who are more stimulated to perform acts aimed at a specific purpose. Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 22 Sport and Physical Activity as tools for inclusion in the pedagogical process The real inclusion of students with disabilities at school, during motor and sports activity, is still a process in development and there are, unfortunately, several critical issues that do not allow it to be fully realized. Sport and, therefore, physical education at school, offer each student the opportunity to express themselves and communicate through the body, their way of being and one's own identity understood as a kind of Photography of personal experiences and experiences. Sport and physical education can unite, to bring people together. Especially These benefits concern the so-called sports education, that is, the sporting experience that is deviates from competitive or professional dynamics because, in that case, the risk is to result in the opposite effect of that relating to education (Coates & Vickerman, 2013). The guidelines for physical, motor and sports education activities in schools, issued by the MIUR in 2019, state that sport requires the person to get involved in a total way, stimulating him to seek both the tools and the strategies suitable for address and overcoming your difficulties. This definition does not only refer to able-bodied children, but it applies to everyone, even for students with disabilities. And it is precisely in this direction that the school has the duty to develop the sports culture to ensure that students develop healthy values, those values that only sport can convey and promote constantly. Through these values it is possible to improve aggregation, integration, and socialization both at school and in society (Bergamini et al., 2015). Everyone must actively participate in motor- sports activity, and it is right that disabled children are also protagonists of the action and not only present in the gym. The practice of sport, as previously stated, brings countless benefits. It allows, for example, to satisfy a series of typical human needs concerning the playful experience, the one linked to movement and being in a group, all achievable through sport. An extremely important factor is the improvement of residual potential in all degrees of disability, achievable through physical activity (Qi, 2012; Qi, 2018). Obviously, in relation to the severity of disability, there are improvements of different kinds but, in general, there are important effects on the quality of life of these subjects. There are also several studies that show that the constant practice of motor-sports activity has important benefits both on learning and on academic performance. The model of sport that, over the years, has matured thanks to the history of Italian integration, is that of "integrated sport for inclusion". The peculiarity of this model is certainly to link the concepts of sport and inclusive education in an indissoluble way. The maturation of this model took place within the world of special school pedagogy. Special pedagogy has allowed sport to be enriched from many points of view, with the aim of building an enhancing context that would allow a fair comparison between disabled people. Precisely in this context, a series of sports are inserted that can be traced back to a different model called "integrated sport". These particular sports are practiced by people with and without disabilities through some differentiations that allow everyone to play together (Green, 2019). The source of inspiration that allowed the birth of these sports is attributable precisely to those principles of the school integration system, of an all-Italian matrix, a system that has allowed people with disabilities to access and actively participate in the learning process within the classroom (Miola et al., 2021). Integrated sport, characterized by a fusion of sporting principles with principles related to special pedagogy, can be defined through a series of key elements: a) centrality of the person; (b) participation of persons with different health conditions; c) educational peculiarities; (d) roles defined on the basis of abilities and not disability; (e) flexible rules; f) recognizable and codified spaces and times; g) competitive spirit and healthy competition; (h) active participation and equal opportunities for all. The evaluation, through motor tests of what the subject can actually do at the motor level, is the basis of the attribution of Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 23 roles that takes place by differentiation not changing the structure of the game, but managing to meet the needs of the individual with activities that are at their level and that push him to try to improve himself (Koh, 2021). Also in this case, we can find a parallel with Special Pedagogy. Inclusion is achieved when the pupil with disabilities is not removed from the classroom, but when he willingly accepts a task specially created for him and can also make his contribution by working in groups, within a serene atmosphere where he is respected and considered. In integrated sport everyone trains following personal schemes but does so to give life, during the game, to a team game that will allow everyone to achieve success through the contribution of all. In summary, therefore, integrated sport is a set of organized motor activities, strongly educational and playful, which are based on a type of activity that is first of all cooperative and that aims to be also competitive to keep alive the original idea and the essence of sport. Everyone can participate actively and competently in this type of activity: people with severe disabilities, able-bodied people, men and women who, through the appropriate spaces, materials appropriate to the abilities and potential of each one, can see their abilities enhanced, actively participating and on the basis of equal opportunities through regulations that are always flexible. There are therefore three key elements: accessibility, active participation and equal opportunities, i.e. the guiding principles of an inclusive society. An example of an integrated sport is Baskin (Inclusive Basketball). 1. The Inclusive Didactic Approach Inclusive teaching is the teaching of all, which is based on personalization and individualization through active, participatory, constructive, and affective methodologies. The quality of inclusive teaching is determined by educational reflexivity and intentionality, by the search for alternative motivations and hypotheses, by the ability to change perspectives of meaning and to produce transformative learning (DeMatthews, Serafini, & Watson, 2021). As Pennac (2010) argues, "Each student plays his own instrument, there is nothing to be done. The difficult thing is to get to know our musicians well and find harmony. A good class is not a regiment marching in step, it is an orchestra playing the same symphony." Inclusive teaching is, therefore, a teaching conceived, designed and planned, from the beginning, based on individual variability, capable of being accessible for all students and not only for some with special educational needs. Designing in an inclusive way means thinking, whatever the content to be conveyed, of personalized, multi-modal, and multilevel forms of teaching, because each student faces learning at different levels and ways, thus avoiding "path emergencies" that force, a posteriori, to modify what has been designed for an "ideal class", thus avoiding loss of effectiveness of the teaching action itself. Poorly designed and poorly conducted teaching can run the risk of creating barriers to learning itself (Graham, 2020). Inclusive teaching is therefore an innovative and flexible teaching "style" that facilitates the participation, enhancement, and educational success of all students. Inclusive teaching challenges teachers to develop a wide repertoire of teaching strategies that are considered effective, not only for pupils with special needs, but for everyone. This means that every teacher can improve their effectiveness, first of all by knowing and then using, monitoring and evaluating the best strategy, so as to help students become more effective learners themselves. There is a lot of research that shows how meta-cognitive, cooperative strategies, the strengthening of social and emotional skills, as well as the creation of a positive classroom climate, are essential for inclusive teaching. Developing a broad repertoire of effective strategies is essential as long as they reflect knowledge of the characteristics, needs of students and environmental circumstances, as well as teachers' professional and personal knowledge and skills (Garg, & Sharma, 2020; Sleeter, & Zavala, 2020). Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 24 In addition to the dimension of effectiveness with respect to methodological-didactic choices and actions to be made, an inclusive teacher cannot forget the importance of relational and emotional skills. Numerous studies show that teachers' appropriate mental attitude, emotional closeness, and ability to give appropriate and positive feedback to students are decisive elements for their academic success and the creation of a good classroom climate. The training of teachers with respect to their social and emotional skills, in an inclusive school context, certainly cannot be underestimated. The quality of the classroom climate (made up of relationships and emotional experiences) is crucial for the success of students, who learn best when they are in an emotionally safe and predictable environment, which motivates them and stimulates them towards positive and inclusive goals (Demchenko, Maksymchuk, Bilan, Maksymchuk, & Kalynovska, 2021). The concept of inclusivity in contemporary schools goes beyond disability, learning disorders, explicit difficulties in integration and behavior and concerns all pupils with respect to whom it is necessary to give different answers for their educational needs. The goal of inclusive teaching is, in fact, to make all students reach the highest possible degree of learning and social participation, enhancing the differences present in the class. UNESCO's Guidelines for Integration Policies in Education (2009) emphasize that: "Inclusive schooling is a process of strengthening the capacities of the education system to reach all students. [...]. An inclusive school system can only be created if mainstream schools become more inclusive." In other words, if they become better at educating all the children in their community. For pupils with certified disabilities, on the other hand, Legislative Decree No. 66 of 13 April 2017 lays down specific rules for the promotion of their full school integration. In particular, it refers to the so-called Plan for Inclusion that each school must prepare to overcome all those factors that may hinder its implementation, for the coordinated use of resources and to design specific improvement interventions. The Inclusion Plan must include an analysis of strengths and weaknesses, objectives to increase inclusiveness for the following school year, resources (support teachers, assistants, contact persons), methodologies, methods of involving families, relations with local social and health services that are intended to be activated, actions for the acquisition and distribution of additional resources for the implementation of inclusion projects, the preparation of interventions for entry into the school system, continuity between the different levels of school and future integration into the world of work (Ciyer, 2010). The inclusive school, therefore, equips itself in a synergistic way to propose multiple educational and didactic strategies, according to a holistic approach, which considers the student as a complex and multidimensional person with his or her own socio- cultural and biological characteristics, and aims at the overall development of the potential and skills of each one for the achievement of the highest possible level of learning and socialization. To achieve this, however, schools must have the courage to renounce the standardization of teaching (Kinsella, 2020). It must allow all its members to feel part of a community in which the same educational ideals are shared, the individuality of all its members is respected, each with his or her own interests, needs and talents, and offers multiple possibilities and formative opportunities, so that each one can realize his or her aspirations. Fundamental to this new vision of the school is respect for the right to self- determination and to the construction of future life projects adapted to the potential of each and every one, to the aspirations of families and to the new demands of society and culture. The school intends to achieve these important educational objectives with the collaboration of families with whom it is necessary to share, in respect of roles and specific responsibilities, objectives, goals and strategies for the healthy growth of young people. An inclusive systemic vision must also consider the contributions that can come from collaboration with other public and private entities, and from associations operating in the area and that are able to contribute to ensuring the educational success of students (Kim, Yi, & Hong, Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 25 2021; Miller et al., 2022; Stinken-Rösner et al., 2020). In the process of individualization of teaching, activities are provided for disabled pupils so that it is possible to achieve knowledge and skills common to the rest of the class. Common objectives, therefore, to the class group, but different, individualized methodologies, which consider the potential, skills, and personal abilities of the disabled student, which become a resource, trying to eliminate the factors that originate or maintain the difficulty. Personalized teaching, on the other hand, provides for the achievement of objectives that are different from those of the class, because they are built ad hoc on the disability of the individual student, enhancing his or her strengths. In this way, by specifically considering the different ability of the pupil as a peculiarity of his own, the pupil will be given the opportunity to develop his full potential and give him the opportunity to transmit his different ability to others (Väyrynen, & Akunyili, 2020). To interpret inclusion as a "day-to-day" way of managing classrooms, training must be aimed at both support teachers and all curriculum teachers. Indications and Guidelines remind us that diversity poses a great challenge to didactic and educational action, such as being able to face it, having adequate skills in inclusive teaching strategies, in order to respond adequately not only to the needs of disabled pupils or with Specific Learning Disorders, with other difficulties or developmental disorders and with social and cultural disadvantage, but also emphasizing the quality of learning of all pupils (Sturm, 2019). A key aspect is also that of "taking charge" of the student, which must be carried out by the entire "educating community", avoiding processes of delegation to the support teacher alone. Hence, therefore, the need for targeted, specific, modular training interventions that consider the different starting levels of those who access training and, above all, based on a participatory vision of inclusion and oriented towards cooperation and cooperative teaching (Mihajlovic, 2020). Nevertheless, the school, which for over forty years has been trying to be a welcoming and inclusive context, today feels it must oppose the adverse pressures that come from the outside with a decisive and constructive commitment to inclusion. These educational ideals are expressed through pedagogical challenges from which the school cannot move away. Learning and teaching practices can guide inclusive actions in the classrooms, through participation, cooperation, interdependence, and laboratory methodology. 2. Physical Education as a means of inclusion The stimulating encounter between physical activity and the world of disability takes place starting from the origins of school inclusion. Physical education, in fact, is one of the school disciplines that contributes decisively to the formation of one's bodily identity, personality and the acquisition of communicative- relational skills (Demchenko, Maksymchuk, Bilan, Maksymchuk, & Kalynovska, 2021). It is considered fundamental for the harmonious development of the personality and for the formation of citizens capable of expressing themselves and relating in today's world, so much so that it has been defined as a "hinge discipline between the scientific, communicative and expressive, relational and citizenship fields" (MIUR, 2018). Physical education promotes self-knowledge and one's potential in a constant relationship with the environment, others, and objects. It also contributes to the formation of the student's personality through the knowledge and awareness of one's own bodily identity, as well as the continuous need for movement as a constant care of one's person and well-being. Motor activities provide students with opportunities to reflect on the changes in their bodies, to accept them and live them serenely as an expression of each person's growth and maturation process (Sánchez, de Haro-Rodríguez, & Martínez, 2019). They also offer opportunities to reflect on the significance of self- image in comparison with peers. The primary objective of physical education is, in fact, to promote the growth of physically educated people through the acquisition of skills, such as motor skills, knowledge, socio-affective behaviors and motivations such that Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 26 they are urged to adopt healthy and physically active lifestyles based on awareness of the bodily (Haegele, 2019). This orientation frames the discipline in a holistic approach, which identifies among its main purposes the physical, cognitive, and social development of children, together with the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, assigning it the role of a privileged tool for the structuring of personality, social relationships and for the acquisition of the necessary life skills throughout life. It is for this reason that physical education is proposed as an essential element for integrated growth. It follows that, through a conscious pedagogical orientation aimed at proposing significant motor experiences and the acquisition of new skills, it is necessary to promote an adequate motor planning that correlates with a coherent pedagogical intentionality, in order to adequately define motor action and to attribute a fair value to it. Therefore, education through the body and movement cannot be linked to didactic strategies linked only to doing but must also and above all be realized in a condition linked to the deepest meaning of being a person acting in the environment (Hutzler, Meier, Reuker, & Zitomer, 2019). Starting from these assumptions, the school must, therefore, become the ideal setting in which to build a didactic of motor and sports activities that looks at the educational conception of the body and movement understood as a factor of promotion not only of the aspects of self-construction but also as an educational exercise for the acquisition of healthy lifestyles that allow to improve the well-being and health of the individual. In this sense, it becomes necessary to integrate in the teaching practice both the purely physical and the socio-relational aspects, in order to allow a global taking charge of the psychophysical health of the subject. Physical education must, therefore, necessarily become essential to the formation of young people. In fact, it contributes to their growth both in structural terms and to the formation of the Self that concerns the body, its potential and its limits, its position in physical space, its perception in relation to others, its image. It also plays a crucial role in directing motivation to improve one's individual skills and self- determination in achieving psycho-physical well- being. Therefore, it not only has the educational value that contributes to the development of motor skills, abilities, and competences, but also and above all the value of all those activities that, through movement, contribute to the structuring of identity and awareness of the potential of one's own body (Rekaa, Hanisch, & Ytterhus, 2019). Physical education conceived and experimented in this way puts into practice a didactic that becomes a tool for the metacognitive development of the body and mind, in a framework in which the subjects can recognize themselves in body and movement. The education of the body and movement is therefore aimed at a training process capable of allowing learners to achieve an ever-greater awareness of their body in movement in order to obtain that intrinsic pleasure and the achievement of cultural, social and expressive factors that identify the value aspect of motor activities (Vilchez, Kruse, Puffer, & Dudovitz, 2021). It follows that the educational process represents the tool through which the individual gives shape to his or her personal identity, integrating all those knowledge, skills and competencies that allow him or her to live and mature an increasingly complete self-awareness. The body and movement are, therefore, two fundamental elements of the individual and social dimension in the personal development of the individual, it follows that physical activities provide a special contribution to the creation and strengthening of skills that can be used in other contexts of life. Within the didactic path of motor and sports education, due to the specific experiential characteristics of the discipline, the curriculum helps to develop transversal skills capable of making students capable of transforming the knowledge, attitudes and values acquired into real skills, such as "what to do" and "how to do it" in every circumstance of life (Nilholm, 2021). This type of offer characterized by a multiplicity of accessible, interdisciplinary, situated, and immersive learning opportunities, based on plural and differentiated didactic mediations in their complementarity, represents the methodological framework within which the knowledge and skills Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 27 acquired through physical, and sports education can contribute to the development of educational and social equity. 3. Physical education as a perspective for the development of individual potential Physical education unquestionably assumes an educational value for everyone, able bodied and disabled; For the latter, play, movement, and sport take on an added value by giving visibility to their physical and cognitive abilities. Every form of educational intervention stems from the teacher's ability to remove "obstacles", focusing on functional abilities and hypothesizing suitable, not adapted, educational proposals (Kirk, 2019). The presence of a person with disabilities within a group changes relationships, relationships, balances, emotions on an intra and interpersonal level: there begins to be more collaboration, sharing and there is a tendency to face any obstacle in order to resolve the various conflicts. Disability also produces advantages for able-bodied people to the extent that they are in an inclusive dimension that is not limited only to welcoming diversity. Various didactic and educational strategies must be put in place in order to create a learning community, a community that manifests solidarity and sensitivity. Everyone should perceive difference as a value or resource and not as a threat precisely because, when an individual meet someone "different" from yourself, you create a greater awareness of your identity. It is necessary to create a new educational paradigm, it is necessary to educate to the difference, to the other and to the different to create those effective conditions in which the subject can express his potential and the most hidden reactions (Sulasmi, & Akrim, 2019). It becomes necessary to identify the skills of the most "fragile" in order to enhance their abilities within the class group. The resulting didactic proposal will have to respond to the needs of the students, taking into account the conditions of extreme heterogeneity of the classes, aiming at the discovery of their own body and their motor and communication skills to increase self-esteem and self-confidence. Starting from the assumption that every student needs, indifferently, appropriate educational proposals and that whatever the "difficulty", the educator will have to create the conditions of welcome and collaboration such as to allow adequate participation in the activity, Motor and Sports Education could intervene as a facilitator of school learning in subjects with special educational needs. The person, the goal, and the context (rules and people) are the factors that unite the world of play and sport and the world of disability: everyone indiscriminately uses their skills and determination to achieve the same goal, that is, to reach the limit of their limits by overcoming obstacles. From this point of view, it is important to be able to train the teachers themselves in order to make them understand the real and personal needs of the students in order to create inclusive actions that can make the disabled person feel the protagonist of their own life project and no longer a simple spectator in which others play their game (Opstoel et al., 2020). Physical education, in fact, becomes effective when the focus is on the student and not on sport, when the teacher is able to motivate the student and create a positive teacher learner relationship, making him more and more autonomous in his activity and personal choices. The educational process and the related training project require an educational space in which motor and sports paths are flexible and personalized in relation to the characteristics and peculiarities of each subject, which allow not only to "overcome" the deficit but also to increase in each subject the awareness of his possibilities, thus contributing to the formation of his identity. It happens, in fact, that every student has special needs to be transformed into special desires and life prospects, as each subject is unique and unrepeatable, with his or her own experience and his or her own life project. The line to be taken is, therefore, that of "valuing differences in the awareness of diversity as an indispensable value" in order to confront the diversity of each student in a new learning environment that ensures convergence and balance between different Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 28 characteristics and needs and above all is able to change flexibly with changing attitudes, aspirations, environments, fragility and potential of the person (White et al., 2021). Looking at the disabled person beyond their deficit means considering their life history by providing different possibilities for personalized and integrated growth. Physical education is well suited to this training approach as motor activities allow you to "abandon the pressures of everyday life, have more bodily contact, be cooperative, resolve conflicts, get to know the other and, consequently, socialize with all people beyond disability" (Juvonen, Lessard, Rastogi, Schacter, & Smith, 2019). Physical education, as a training process, therefore, represents a real breaking down of social barriers, a tool capable of giving life to an innovative and mature paradigm based on the promotion of social inclusion. For the disabled person sharing the same experience, the same spaces and the same moments with others represents an opportunity for growth and social integration. Physical education should be considered as a method of intervention in the difficult educational path and integration of the disabled person. The motor and sports field, in fact, is a favorable context for the development and consolidation of fundamental cognitive skills and, at the same time, the body, motor activity, games and recreational activities aimed at integration, become concrete and coherent educational tools for the affirmation of this paradigm. Through motor activities, exploiting a psychoeducational intervention model that integrates the educational aspect with the psychological and relational one, it is possible to create the conditions for the subject with disabilities to benefit from a learning context, understood as growth and structuring of the personality (search for autonomy). This means, first of all, valuing the diversity of the student: difference is to be considered a resource and a richness and, in this sense, collaboration and teamwork are essential for everyone's growth (Pangrazi, & Beighle, 2019). Sport and play, in addition to spreading the values of solidarity, loyalty, respect for the person and the rules, which are the founding principles of any healthy society, are extraordinary tools for building skills that can be transferred to other contexts of life. The organization of a competition, the definition of roles, the determination of timing, game strategies, are real intellectual skills that can be transferred to any context of life and represent skills that everyone should be able to put into practice when they must make decisions or prepare a program of action. Movement activities are opportunities to privilege creativity and emotional investment because the educational perspective is to support the processes that lead to autonomy, the growth of self-esteem, the ability to initiative and self- awareness at various levels, physical and emotional. Conclusions Educating the person to become himself, also by concentrating on his bodily realization, means helping him to become aware of his being a whole person, which is expressed and fulfilled through movement, action. This means accompanying the subject to read the body not only as a set of muscle bundles to be controlled as such and therefore a mere expression of coordinative and conditional capacities, but to ensure that it grasps itself integrally in its total corporeality, which also involves relating to others. The body, as a co-builder of knowledge and self-knowledge, in its being "in situation", is correlated with motivation, with the intentionality that each Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 8; November-2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 29 subject puts into his action and not only with his mechanical action of a merely reproductive model. Physical education, conducted in formal, non- formal and informal educational systems, calls for the acquisition of the person's awareness of his transformation as a bodily identity, in his existence, acting and perfecting himself. In this sense, pedagogical intentionality has as its peculiarity the feeling and becoming of bodies, embodied and embodied actions that give meaning and significance to the person's experience, including those who may show deficits and disabilities. Physical education has, in essence, the purpose of allowing each and every one to develop their own personal life project according to an eco-systemic approach, using a multi-perspective vision in relation to the contribution that the different motor activities can offer in order to achieve a "formative" design. References Brennan, A., King, F., & Travers, J. (2021). Supporting the enactment of inclusive pedagogy in a primary school. 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