Social Representations and Special Education Teacher’s Epistemological Conceptions of Learning

The register of the teachers’ statements during the meetings formed a textual body which was submitted to similarity analysis and the graphic representation of word clouds by IRAMUTEQ software, giving rise to the categories of analysis. The innate and empirical epistemological conceptions of learning coexisted in the teachers’ social representations. The conceptions were anchored in the organicist view of disability and ideas that reinforce the handicaps of children with disabilities and not their potentialities.

As a consequence, teachers work on the preparation of children with disabilities for their integration into society, and not on educational actions aimed at their effective inclusion in society. The results refer to the teacher’s continuing education, the promotion of reflective discussions with the pedagogical team about the role of the special school and the encouragement of interdisciplinary work in the institution.