SCIENCE TEACHING AND INCLUSION: SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

ABSTRACT:

This study was conducted with elementary school science teachers who teach students with disabilities in regular classes in Jequié / Bahia. The objective was to understand how teachers have positioned themselves on educational inclusion. We used the Free Association of Words and the semi-structured interview to obtain the data. The data analysis was supported by the approach of the Theory of Social Representations. Finally, we used the similarity analysis. The semantic groupings that had a high frequency and a low average order of evocations of the inducing term “Inclusion” were Respect and Law, while for the term “Science Teaching and Inclusion” were Law, Differentiated Methodologies and Learning, respectively. The results indicate the teachers’ recognition that science education already has indications of an inclusive perspective.

Keywords:
Disability; Educational Inclusion; Theory of Social Representations