Special Education and the Teaching of Natural Sciences to Blind and Low Vision Students: Contributions of a Teacher Education Course

Resumo

Background: the teachers’ role in special education has been the subject of vigorous discussions in the face of current public policies in the Brazilian context. Objectives: to investigate the potentialities and limits of a teacher training with special education teachers, whose purpose was to provide reflections on the role of the special educator associated with the teaching and learning process of natural sciences in situations with blind and low vision students. Design: qualitative research. Setting and participants: seventeen teachers from the special education area of a Municipal Secretary of Education participated in the training, two of whom were blind. Data collection and analysis: qualitative information from the following sources was submitted to discursive textual analysis: textual productions resulting from activities carried out in the training teacher; collective virtual diary; and texts from semi-structured interviews. Results: the analysis revealed, for example, that the influence of the medical-pedagogical aspect is still predominant in the professional development of special education teachers, with implications for the teaching and learning process of natural sciences in situations with blind and low vision students. Conclusions: the results explain, to some extent, the resistance to innovative ideas addressed in the training under discussion.