A pessoa com deficiência física: representações sociais de alunos usuários de cadeira de rodas sobre a escolarização e as implicações no processo formativo

Abstract

The physical disability is a social category that, throughout history, has been experienced by the sight of the abnormality, prejudice and social inequality. Currently, there is a set of legal and political contributions, ensuring educational rights of people with disability and ensuring the access to school. Despite of the political and legal milestones, the day by day of school show us that still need to move forward in discussions of education of people with disabilities. This study aimed to understand the social representations of university students with physical disabilities, wheelchair users about the education of people with disabilities and this influence in their formative process. The social representations ( SR ) are modalities of practice knowledge, formed in the daily lives of the individuals, inscribed within a referential, and a pre-existing thoughts, dependent of a belief system, anchored in values, traditions and images of the world and existence and appear dynamically on a network of ideas, metaphors, values , practices, experiences and images, more or less, interconnected. The study was characterized by a qualitative research, of descriptive interpretative type. Six students, with physical disabilities, wheelchair users who attend higher education courses, in the Federal University of Pará, Belém campus, participated in the survey. In order to collect the data, we used the story of life as a technique and as instruments use a form and narrative interview. For the interpretation of the data, we used the content analysis as proposed by Bardin (2011). The theme criterion was used for the choice of direction units. We did the pre-analysis, coding in units of meaning and categorization, in which we assign the name of interpretative themes. Data were organized in thematic interpretation in the dimensions: teaching, accessibility, influence on the choice of profession and inclusion policies/ access and permanence. In the results, the social representations of participants indicated the little educational preparation of institutions for educational and training services for students with disabilities. On the social context in the relationship student-student, participants experienced situations where prejudice, stereotype and aggressions were present: the teacher-student relationship, there were representations of positive situations (reception, meeting the needs, defense against bullying) and negative situations (prejudice, indifference, aggression). In the dimension of accessibility, the physical conditions of the environment and infrastructure were, in the most non-existent and / or precarious, where the facilities did not meet the technical requiring standards. In the dimension teaching and learning, there was a few reports about the curriculum changes (method, techniques, evaluation, etc.). Regarding the inclusion / access and retention policies, the vast majority did not know about. This study is suggesting that we need to implement policies and proposals of everyday actions that, in fact, come meet the needs of students with physical disabilities, with a view to their empowerment, a training and occupational quality.