This intervention research analyzes the impact of implementation of the Brazilian inclusive education policy on the teachers of a public school. The intervention was based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, using the methodology of Change Laboratory. Such methodology is based on the idea of expansive learning, which proposes the collective creation of new solutions to deal with the contradictions faced in an activity system (in this case, the school). Inclusive education has been a challenge to this school and its teachers: most of them were dealing with it for the first time. Ten group sessions were carried out from March to December 2014 and data were collected during such sessions. Three categories emerged from the data in an attempt to explain the teachers’ concerns about inclusion: 1) inclusion as learning, 2) inclusion as fallacy and 3) manifestation of contradictions related to inclusion. Students’ effective learning was the least frequent category. Manifestation of contradictions was the main category, indicating that the proposed inclusive education must advance to improve students’ performance. Such advances could take place through facing the contradictions appointed by the subjects themselves. Under the light of the theoretical framework, it was possible to perceive that the contradictions reveal the tensions involved in the inclusion process and, at the same time, the potential for change they carry in themselves.
This article presents data from a formative intervention conducted with Brazilian regular school teachers to develop strategies for their work with students with disabilities. The analysis was oriented by two questions: 1) How did the concept of inclusion of children with disabilities evolve during the intervention? and 2) What contradictions related to inclusion were manifested in the teacher's discourse and how might these contradictions explain the evolution of the teachers' concepts? Answering the first question, data were organized in two categories: inclusion as learning and inclusion as fallacy, with a higher incidence of the latter. The second question helped to understand the former, data showed discursive manifestations of contradictions of four types: dilemmas, conflicts, critical conflicts and double binds. Contradictions were also analyzed by content: 1) evaluation based on tests and reports versus evaluation based on students' learning; 2) teaching students with disabilities versus teaching non-disabled students; 3) current conditions versus possibilities versus needs. Throughout the intervention, especially towards its end, discursive manifestations of contradictions increased, showing teachers did not find themselves supported for undertaking such a task. The intervention process was not enough to overcome the contradictions, as they are deeply rooted in the historical conception of inclusion.
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