A formação do professor de Geografia e a inclusão de pessoas com deficiência visual: os desafios da prática docente.

Abstract

This work deals with the Geography teacher education and the inclusion of students with visual impairments in the classroom. The inclusion of those people in school space depends on an adapted environment and pedagogical material, but mainly on trained teachers. In this sense, based on the following questions, are teachers of regular network of education prepared for this special service? Do government properly qualify them? Are Geography teachers ready to fully meet the requirements of this segment? From this problematization, the general goal of this work is to assess the education of Geography teachers of Senador Argemiro de Figueiredo Inclusive School, located at Campina Grande/PB, specifically the teaching of this subject to visually impaired students; and as specific goals: to understand how education for people with disabilities has improved over time; to check how has authorities and legislation positioned in relation to the graduation of teachers and its features according to the needs of visually impaired students, specifically at Geography teaching area; and finally, to identify if those teachers are, now, qualified to work for such students. It was used qualitative methodology, by assessing the content of official documents and legislation that deals with special education, as well as the conduction of interviews with employees of government organs responsible for teachers education, and with professionals from abovementioned school, presenting as the main mechanism the triangulation technique, according to Triviños (2006). When assessing the outcomes, it is noticed that some sectors of the government are trying to turn available updating courses to meet inclusion requirements, but there are still insufficient efforts for the existing demand. About the education of Geography teachers aimed to include visually impaired students, we identified that it is still inexistent. In addition, there is still a lack of pedagogical features for these professionals and the support for specialized educational service has been minimal, given the requirements for these professionals. Lastly, there is a lack of resources to guarantee the minimum structural, training and follow-up conditions needed to a real inclusion, thus not meeting the legal policy and not granting these students the access to a qualified education.