Social Representations and Special Education: a brief study of the state of knowledge

um breve estudo do estado do conhecimento

Abstract

This article is a descriptive study, carried out through State of Knowledge and was carried out with the aim of understanding the results of studies already published on teachers' social representations of Special Education, for a greater understanding of the topic and identifying gaps, tensions and challenges in the construction of this knowledge. Three online databases were used: Google Scholar, Catalog of Theses and Dissertations – CAPES and Sciello for research and choice of works to compose the study corpus.  In the analyses, Content Analysis proposed by Bardin and the Iramuteq software were used. Through this state of knowledge, it was realized that the social representations of teachers regarding students with disabilities, the Special Education public and, consequently, School Inclusion are permeated by ableist and exclusionary concepts, based on practices devoid of meaning, with medical-biological conceptions that construct the “normalization/abnormalization” discourse so present in Brazilian schools. These representations influence pedagogical practices, hindering the process of school inclusion for Special Education students who have guaranteed access at school, but do not have their right to learn guaranteed.