O despontar da educação especial na ANPEd

Abstract

This paper focuses on the creation of the Work Group (WG) of Special Education in ANPEd (National Association of Post-Graduation and Research). It is a historical review of a proposal made by a group of professors and researchers in Special Education from different Brazilian universities that discussed the importance of forming a WG of Special Education in ANPEd. A calendar of meetings that aimed the discussion of Special Education research and legislation was agreed, and an official letter requesting a special appointment for Special Education during ANPEd meetings was sent to their directors. The letter justified this request highlighting that the inclusion of the subject Special Education in the university curriculum, especially in undergraduate teaching courses, arose the need for developing research bound to Special Education graduate courses. As a result to that request, the Study Group (SG) was created in ANPEd in 1989. This article describes the functioning of the SG, the program, the participants and the cooperative research involving six Brazilian States, which moved the GS forward the WG. Special Education was included as a WG in the XV Annual Meeting of ANPEd in 1992. In that year the WG participants decided about the objectives and functioning of the WG. Upon the closing of the XV ANPEd Meeting, the first coordinator of the Special Education WG, a professor from the School of Education at the University of São Paulo, who coordinated the WG from 1989 until 1992, passed the coordination to a professor from the School of Education at Rio de Janeiro State University.