Between two cultures and two models in school spaces: dialogues about disabilities

Abstract

The article reflects on the right to education of people with disabilities, particularly in their school career and in the dynamics of sociability and learning possibilities. The issue of disability, in its interface with the mandatory school education, has been the subject of numerous public policies since the Federal Constitution of 1988, but the results of these policies are still far from showing a good performance. The chances of recognition and learning for people with disabilities stem from complex articulations between four major conceptual fields and with implications for the practices and ways of dealing with disabilities: school culture, youth cultures, the medical model and the social model of deficiency. The article presents these four constructs, briefly discussing their origins and configurations, and takes them as tools to help think about inclusive educational guidelines. Based on scenes from research projects that carried out ethnography in schools, she rehearses considerations about the possibilities of including people with disabilities in school trajectories.