The Special Educator

Globally, recent statistics indicate that in poor and developing countries, according to UNESCO, approximately 260 million children, due to conflict, discrimination, disability or other difficulties, do not have access to basic education; estimates indicate that only 2% of the population with disabilities receives any form of education. Such evidence has encouraged consensus on the need to focus efforts on meeting the educational needs of countless students who until now have been deprived of the right to access, enroll, remain in and succeed in basic education. Global trends point to the urgency of understanding the needs and providing the necessary means to achieve the democratic ideals of guaranteeing all people, without discrimination, access to information, knowledge and the means necessary for the formation of their full citizenship.

In Brazil, it is estimated that 18.6 million people aged two or over have some kind of disability, representing 8.9% of this population. This data comes from the "People with Disabilities" module of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua) of 2022, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). In the third quarter of 2022, the illiteracy rate among people with disabilities was 19.5%, while among those without disabilities, this rate was 4.1%. This situation, in which the lack of access, adequate conditions for permanence or even academic success predominates, needs to be reversed. Acting on this problem, with the magnitude and complexity it involves, requires knowledge and mastery of how to do it. It is necessary to ask what practices are necessary - and then ask what knowledge is necessary to support such practices. This is an exercise for scientific research, which requires installed potential - in human resources and in working conditions, in constant operation. A postgraduate program that brings together the conditions for the training of masters and doctors can contribute in this direction and this has been the aspiration of the PPGEEs of UFSCar. Added to this context is the alignment of national educational policy guidelines with the international movement in favor of the school inclusion of children who have historically been excluded from and in school, and this has led to an increase in the demand for the production of innovative knowledge in the area of ​​Special Education.

The PPGEEs understands that, beyond the ideological issue, the prospect of schooling children and young people as a Special Education target audience (PEE) in regular classes in regular schools is today a moral and political imperative, given that the majority of this segment of the population continues to be systematically excluded from schools and is still deprived of their right to education, contrary to what is guaranteed in our constitution. Also in this context, it is worth noting that in 2015 the Brazilian Law for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (Statute of Persons with Disabilities) (Law 13,146/2015) was published, designed to ensure and promote, under conditions of equality, the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms by persons with disabilities, aiming at their social inclusion and citizenship. This law, in line with international debates, has demanded reflections and investigations that are of interest to our program. Thus, it is essential to consider that the implementation of public policies, especially in education, requires consistent actions for initial training, recruitment and continued training of qualified professionals, as well as career plans that encourage their continued functional progression in their respective areas of activity, in the different education systems. And it is precisely the issue of teacher training that currently lies one of the greatest obstacles to the future of Special Education in the Brazilian education system.