O pedagogo no contexto da inclusão escolar: possibilidades de ação na escola comum

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the possible collaborative actions to be carried out by pedagogues and other school professionals in order to achieve school inclusion of special education students in elementary school. We adopted three study fronts carried out simultaneously because they complete each other. They were: Participant-observation of school everyday life; questioning of conflicts, the pedagogical practice experienced, and schooling of special education students, which provided space for “training dialogues”, sometimes with the school group and sometimes with the pedagogue; and collaborative processes to implement pedagogical practices that actually provide all students with access to knowledge. The study was carried out in a public municipal elementary school, with students from 1st to 5th grade, involving the managing team (pedagogue, coordinator and principals), the ten head teachers, two area teachers, two special education teachers, and students, spotlighting three special education students. We adopted collaborative critical action research for methodological support and daily participant-observation for data gathering. We carried out semistructured interviews and collective intervention processes. The study took place between July and December 2013. The researcher visited the school three or four times a week and participated in classroom interventions, planning and continuing education, as well as during start, break, and finish times. We relied on theoretical contributions by Paulo Freire and Philippe Meirieu to ground questions found during the study, as well as dialogues in special education researchers. As results, we point at the collaboration process involving the pedagogue and other school professionals as a means to achieve new possibilities of pedagogical organization, teaching practices, and school curriculum to favor special education student participation in the actions planned and performed by school. This also allowed the so-called "normal" students to have access to knowledge. We questioned the importance of professional education as space for dialoguing in the school. We then acknowledge that the school, as educational space, becomes a place for learning, not only for students, but also for professionals working there. We maintain that the pedagogue position is highly important to mediate relevant questions in schools. However, we stress that their isolated operation will have lower contribution to the school, because pedagogical work focusing on overall learning should be a collaborative task — taking place in the relationship between different professionals in the school, but mediated by the pedagogue.