Corpo e aprendizagem da criança com Transtorno do Espectro Autista: um diálogo com professoras da educação infantil

Abstract

The inclusion policies in Brazil, such as Law No. 12,764/2012, which establishes the National Policy for the Protection of the Rights of the Person with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), have broadened the debate about the guarantee of rights and the process of school inclusion of these individuals in the regular education system. However in the literature there are reports that this movement still faces many challenges, one of the most serious being the precariousness in the training of teachers to work in an inclusive perspective reflected in the execution of pedagogical practices that still understand the body as separate from the subject. Considering this, our study aimed to analyze the perception of Kindergarten teachers about the relationship between body and learning in the process of school inclusion of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. From this general objective the following specific objectives unfolded: a) Identify the conception of Kindergarten teachers about school inclusion, body, and learning of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder; b) Analyze the relationship between body and learning of children with ASD in the conception of Kindergarten teachers; c) Apply a continuing education proposal with emphasis on the relationship between body and learning and children with ASD. Among the authors to which we resorted to achieve the objectives of this research are the works developed by Mantoan (2003); Mendes (2006) and Magalhães (2007) on school diversity and inclusion; Nóvoa (2009); Favoretto and Lamônica (2014) on teacher training; Schuwartzman (2003); Nunes; Azevedo; Schmidt (2013) and Fernandes (2008) on Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We also highlight the studies by Merleau-Ponty (2006); Gaya (2006); Nóbrega (2005), and Freire (2011), in which we found subsidies to base our discussions about the relationship between body and learning. This is, therefore, a qualitative, exploratory research, in which we adopted the focus group technique combined with individual interviews to obtain data. The data treatment of semi-structured interviews was based on Bardin's content analysis (2016). This research was conducted with the participation of 05 Kindergarten teachers from the municipal education system of Parnamirim/RN who had regularly enrolled in their classes children diagnosed with ASD, and our training proposal was by digital communication platform, aiming to problematize the relationship between body, learning and school inclusion of children with ASD in the context of Early Childhood Education. The results point to the absence of collective experiences and of spaces for continuing education to build knowledge from action-reflection in the teaching process, teachers' lack of knowledge about ASD, and the strong presence of conceptions that do not value the child's body in the educational process, for still seeing it only as a physical body, in many cases, repressed in favor of valuing cognitive development. We believe that understanding the body as a learning space in education is indispensable to the school inclusion of students with ASD in regular school. And in this scenario investing in teacher training, remotely or in person, continues to be essential.