Segregate or include? Advocacy coalitions, ideas, and changes in special education in Brazil

Abstract

This article examines the changes in education for people with disabilities (PwD) in Brazil, arising from the dissemination of ideas and government actions that introduced the perspective of inclusion. Based on the advocacy coalition framework, we analyzed the national special education subsystem (SES), the advocacy coalitions that integrate the SES, the beliefs in dispute, and the factors that explain the changes observed in the sector. This case study included historical reconstruction, document analysis, literature review and secondary data collection. The results identified the existence of two coalitions in the subsystem: specialized and exclusive care (coalition 1) and inclusive education (coalition 2). The first was dominant between 1973 and 2002, and the second emerged in the 2000s, becoming hegemonic in 2008 with the promulgation of the National Policy for Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education. It was also found that coalition 1 is guided by the separation of students according to types of disability and learning abilities, emphasizing the importance of specialized clinical care and special schools. On the other hand, coalition 2 conceives that everyone is capable of learning, especially when inserted in standard classes of regular schools, within inclusive systems. As explanatory factors of the changes in the SES, exogenous variables stood out, particularly the changes in the Brazilian federal government in 2003, the worldwide dissemination of the inclusive education conceptions - reaching the education subsystems, and the feedback of public policies from the SES and other sectors.

Keywords:
public policy; special education; inclusive education; advocacy coalition framework