Concepções de professores de ciências naturais sobre o processo de inclusão de alunos com deficiências: um estudo na microrregião de Itajubá

Abstract

Based on the principle that disability is a natural characteristic, intrisic to human diversity, and that the concept of disability is socially constructed, in history we seek to understand the conceptions of disability that permeate society's social and political discourses, which served as a basis for the elaboration of laws and public policies for the group of people who have such characteristics, guided by the metaphysical model, medical model and social model of disability. Thus, the concept of disability is constantly changing and is not linear, and although it gains strength in the speeches of researchers, in the struggles of social movements and in the laws of the State, they can still be present in social discourses, conceptions already overcome by scientific knowledge, influencing people's attitudes towards the group. Thus, the social model advocates, today, that disability should not be seen as a disease to be normalized so that, only in this way, people with disabilities can enjoy social rights and duties, but understood in relation to the barriers that society imposes for the social participation of those who differ from the accepted standard, generating disadvantages and exclusion. Therefore, it is understood today that people with disabilities must, by law, be included in society. When it comes to the fundamental right to education, Special Education, field of knowledge, responsible for the education of people with disabilities, assumes an inclusive character when it advocates that it is the right of all students to be together, attending the same school, receiving quality education, with learning opportunities, matched by the school and the teachers so that students can develop their individual skills and competences.Thereby, no school content should be neglected for students who, perhaps, have some special need, as may be the case for students with disabilities. Inclusion is the reality of current educational policies, so we turn our attention to the Teaching of Natural Sciences and raise the following problematic questions: how have teachers in regular classrooms, who teach the disciplines of Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics have understood the process of school inclusion of people with disabilities? How do they understand disability and inclusion? What importance do they attach to teaching these contents to students with disabilities in regular classrooms? Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the conceptions of these teachers, working in regular public schools in the Microregion of Itajubá, about the inclusion process of students with disabilities. To this end, a field research was carried out, of a qualitative and exploratory nature and, using a semi-structured questionnaire, 12 teachers were interviewed who teach the referred subjects and who teach in classes that include students with disabilities. The results obtained in the interviews were analyzed from the Content Analysis, which pointed out three guiding axes, which guided the discussions of the emerging themes in the teachers' speeches. So, we found that the teachers interviewed understand disability as the individual's inability, characteristic of the medical model of disability. Still, they understand inclusion as integration, with the purpose of socializing students with and without disabilities. The teaching of Natural Sciences, in this context, has the character of guiding small actions of daily life, since they are permeated by the stigma of the difficulty of learning the contents. In this way, the potential of initial and continuing education that addresses the issue of school inclusion emerges as indispensable to break social paradigms arising from the beliefs of teachers.