Inclusão escolar de crianças com deficiência na educação infantil: relações, sentidos e práticas

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the relationships of childcare and education established in a class, having some children with disabilities, aged 4 and 5 years, at a Municipal School of Early Childhood Education in Belo Horizonte. When discussing the schooling process of children with disabilities in the context of Early Childhood Education (ECE), we consider disability as a social condition from the perspective of the Social Model. In this sense, we believe that these children with disabilities are social actors capable of producing cultures that contribute to the construction of a more just and egalitarian society, and based on the appreciation of diversity. We adopt the references of the two fields of knowledge that are intertwined in this study – Early Childhood Education and Special Education – establishing a dialogue with Studies on Care, particularly those developed by the Sociology of Work, with Studies on Disability and on the Sociology of Childhood. In this study, we use the qualitative approach with case study as a methodology. We also incorporate institutional documentary research and semi-structured interviews with teachers, support assistants and pedagogical coordinators as a technique for data construction. In addition, we make observations in the context of the studied class. The results show the need to (re)define the relationships of childcare and education in Early Childhood Education classes, from the entry of children of the special education target audience. In this re-definition, attention should be paid to the details, challenges and potentialities of this relational field, in order to provide for the well-being, participation and learning of all children, and considering their singularities. The analyses shed light on the need for a dialogue between the two fields of knowledge. In addition, it enables reflections on the meaning of caring for and educating children with disabilities in ECE classes in a unified way, coming from an evaluation of how this work is configured from the presence of teachers and student support assistants and the conceptions involved in these actions. The category "care" is central to this study since it is constitutive of the relationships in Early Childhood Education. Observations in the field have made it possible to highlight the relations of interdependence and the recognition of alterity, in the educational process, through a new dimension present in this category called “the teaching of caring for the other”. We understand that this dimension need to be in the actions of childcare and education activities in ECE classes, especially in the presence of children with multiple disabilities who need extensive and permanent support in this educational context. Thus, we understand the category “care” as a strong and indispensable link in classes where children with disabilities are enrolled. This supports the assumptions of what we understand by a democratic school that offers quality childcare and education activities based on an inclusive perspective.