The contradictions within inclusion in Brazil

Abstract

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.

Student teachers’ experience of participating in a research and development project in Norway

“…During the last 10 years, several formative interventions have been conducted in school and teacher education (Ellis, 2008;Bal et al, 2014;Kramer, 2018;Thorgeirsdottir, 2019;Cenci et al, 2020;Augustsson, 2021;Yang, 2021;Diao et al, 2022). Participants have different experience from using the CL as an arena for analysis and change.…”

“…In Brazil, a formative intervention was conducted with Brazilian school teachers to develop strategies for their work with students with disabilities. Even though the participants felt that the formative intervention did not contribute to change, they felt that it helped to shed light on the problem and created an opportunity for future development (Cenci et al, 2020). In England, a formative intervention was carried out with the aim of reconfiguring the school-university partnership on a more collective level and developing a form of work that emphasized professional collaboration.…”

‘Why is this child in special education?’: A cultural-historical activity theory-based research intervention with senior UK education leaders on assessment for, and allocation of, specialist educational resources

“…Participants focused upon the principles and values underpinning inclusive pedagogy, the dilemmas of special education and assessment /categorization of need as factors that may have compromised the quality of the DMP. Recognizing that they reflect more broadly persistent and unresolved tensions in education (Black et al, 2019;Cencia et al, 2020;Florian, 2018;Florian & Beaton, 2018), participants turned their attention to children's rights to a mainstream educational experience and societal assumptions that specialist educational provisions have more capacity to meet complex needs via smaller class sizes, elaborated curriculum and staff expertise despite a lack of evidence for better educational and life outcomes for children taught in specialist provisions (Lindsay, 2017).…”

“…But CHAT also offers opportunities for research that can stimulate systemic change using Developmental Work Research (DWR), a CHAT-related intervention strategy, the focus of which is transformational change (Tomizawa, 2020;Cencia et al, 2020;Ellis, 2011;Ellis et al, 2015). A limited number of UK-based studies have focused upon how these issues play out operationally and strategically via DWR intervention research in a locally situated educational context (Edwards, 2015;Edwards et al, 2009).Few studies have examined how senior managers and leaders in UK public service organisations and children's services understand and relate to the systems over which they have power and authority (Daniels & Edwards, 2012), which forms the focus of the present paper.…”

Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training, Volume 3, Issue 1 2020

“…In a recent study, Cenci and colleagues (Cenci, Lemos, Bôas, Damiani & Engeström, 2020) propose expansive learning as a learning theory that is both highly applicable to teacher education and one that teachers themselves can apply in their own professional practice. In the next section, the potential of expansive learning as a theoretical framework for academic staff development in vocational and professional contexts is explained further.…”