CRISIS IN THE PARADIGMS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION SONIA LAIDE LACERDA NEVES, ABIGAIL MALAVASI, Michel da Costa

Abstract

This text is the result of studies, readings and discussions held during classes in the subject “Inclusive Education in Elementary Education”, part of the Professional Master’s Degree in Teaching Practices in Elementary Education, at the Metropolitan University of Santos - UNIMES, and of observations made in school experiences throughout my twenty-eight-year career in Education. Considering the crisis of paradigms in Inclusive Education, I sought to answer the following questions: What do people think about inclusion? Is it an action to welcome students with disabilities into school, placing them in the same conditions as others? What does “inclusion” really mean? Giving everyone the right to equality, without taking into account the specificities of each individual? A right without conditions of access. What kind of inclusion is that? To elucidate these questions, Mantoan (2003) and Carvalho (2014) were used as theoretical references. The study led us to understand that there is a long way to go before there is a full understanding of what inclusion really is and that it is the school's responsibility to help along this path. Many barriers and paradigms need to be broken down so that we can truly have an inclusive school, city, and country, because accessibility is not only linked to teaching and learning, to the school, and to people with disabilities; it involves urbanization, transportation, architecture, communication, information, and attitudes, as well as technology.