Special education in teacher training: A study on undergraduate courses in pedagogy

Abstract

This text presents results of an investigation on Special Education (SE) in the initial formation of teachers of Early Childhood Education and initial grades of Elementary Education, in the Pedagogy degree courses offered by the Federal Universities of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is a documentary and bibliographic analysis using as main sources the Legal Guidelines and the Courses Pedagogical Master Plans (PMP). In 2018, ten active courses were identified, in the face-to-face modality, at the Universities: UNIFAL, UFJF, UFLA, UFMG, UFOP, UFSJ, UFU, FACIP/UFU, UFV and UFVJM. It was found that the PMP met the National Guidelines for Higher Education Courses, approved in 2006. All courses offered curricular components related to SE, but with reduced course hours (CH) compared to the total CH. The study of “Sign Language” was included in all PMP in compliance with Decree 5,626/2005. The comparative analysis of the documents corroborates previous research, such as: Deimling (2013), Pedroso, Campos and Duarte (2013), Omote and Marinho (2017). SE occupies a restricted space in the curricula, in the objectives, in the profile of the graduate, in the CH, in the organization of the formative trajectories, which represents a gap in the initial formation. These evidences indicate the necessary expansion of SE space in Pedagogy Courses and the continuous training of teachers in this area in order to make inclusive education real.