Percepções de Docentes de Geografia sobre a Inclusão de Alunos com Deficiência em uma cidade localizada na Região Central do RS

Abstract

The path to a quality, meaningful and inclusive Geography Teaching is built through incessant discussions around its advances, setbacks and impasses. Therefore, the objective of this article was to investigate the perceptions of Geography teachers who teach in schools in the municipality of Santa Maria, RS, about the process of including students with disabilities in the classes of this curricular component and in the institutions they work with. For this, interviews were used to collect data and a qualitative approach was used in the analysis and discussion of the results. Thus, it was found that the inclusion of students with disabilities in Geography classes in the study area is still interpreted as a major challenge. According to teachers, there is a lack of infrastructure and incentives for adequate assistance to all students, and not just those with disabilities, given the workload and large bureaucracy in obtaining support from special education services, as well as the high number of students in the classroom. When there is a lack of inclusive education, it is also perceived that the relationship between family and school must be considered, as many parents and/or guardians still do not accept and understand the differences. For these reasons, inclusion is still a challenge. Professors recognize the urgent demand to think about inclusion and adequate pedagogical strategies for the insertion of all students and hope that such challenges will be overcome and that students will be truly included and not merely integrated into the classroom.