Concepções docentes sobre saúde e deficiência sob o prisma da Teoria Bioecológica de Desenvolvimento Humano

Abstract

Education policies in Brazil at different levels of education are developed in an inclusive perspective, which requires knowledge and respect for diversity. For such policies to be effective and contribute to the education of all, especially to the target audience of special education at university, the conceptions that permeate the strategies of action need to be constantly rethought, mainly in the midst of social transformations. Among these conceptions are the concepts of health and disability, which reverberate on services in the area of Special Education. The university, as a space of knowledge and professional training, shares the objectives of inclusion processes. Therefore, rethinking conceptions to promote paradigm change is necessary. The conceptions about health and disability, in the social contexts, impact human behavior and derive, depending on their characteristics, from systemic influences expressed by historical and political processes. Thus, the problem that was posed in the development of this study, stemmed from the following question: what are the conceptions of disability and health for university professors who work with people with disabilities today and how do they operate in pedagogical practice? The general objective was to understand the conceptions of health and disability expressed by higher education professors and their influence on the pedagogical practice for the process of inclusion of people with disabilities under the prism of the Bioecological Theory of Human Development. The method was based on a mixed research of the case study type, with professors from a public institution of higher education. Interviews were conducted with professors who were experienced with students with disabilities in the classroom (microsystemic), with a sample for convenience. Concomitantly, an online (macrosystemic) questionnaire, was sent to professors of the three centers with the highest registration of people with disabilities. The analysis of the quantitative data was done through descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was treated by content analysis (Bardin, 2011). The data collected showed that professors have conceptions about health and disability in the process of transformation, due in particular to the inclusive paradigm and the organization of HEI. The bioecological systems of professors are similar, so we observed that the influences on these conceptions result from having experience with people with disabilities, in addition to the support provided by HEI. We also observed the need for changes in the training of university professors for an inclusive pedagogical practice, as well as the importance of increasing the support provided by the different sectors of HEI. In conclusion, conceptions about health and disability have especially undergone behavioral changes, whose understanding shows a progressive dissociation of the disease, in relation to disability. These are favored by the inclusion paradigm and the characteristics of the HEI under study, which collaborate for the pedagogical practices of university professors. Finally, we hope that the research will produce new reflections about the conceptions that permeate the education of people with disabilities in the university and, therefore, can make resound new looks to the inclusion in the society.