Abstract

FERRAZ, Ana Paula dos Santos  and  COSTAS, Fabiane Adela Tonetto. The project of special education in higher education: pedagogies in dispute. Educ. Pesqui. [online]. 2025, vol.51, e282790.  Epub July 28, 2025. ISSN 1678-4634.  https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-4634202551282790por.

This study aimed at analyzing pedagogical actions and practices that pervade the project of Special Education in Brazilian public Higher Education institutions under Law no. 13,409/2016, which requires federal universities to offer vacancies to individuals with disabilities. This qualitative investigation comprised the following steps: survey of knowledge produced in the field; mapping of Brazilian public Higher Education institutions; building and sending of an online form to get to know the institutions; analysis of answers given to the forms and building of an interview; and sending of e-mails/invitations to institutions that answered the forms to take part in an interview via Google Meet. Twenty-one out of 63 Brazilian public Higher Education institutions answered the forms and 17 interviews were conducted. The Content Analysis was used for interpreting data collected by the interviews. Data were grouped into categories of analysis in the light of contributions given by the Historical-Cultural Theory. Results showed the dismantling of Higher Education in Brazil due to some constraints, such as budget cuts, extinction/lack of vacancies for specific professionals in the field of Special Education, professors’ and technicians’ work overload and service privatization. Practices related to the field of Special Education have been mainly carried out by apprentices who are granted scholarships (they are neither affiliated with the institutions nor have legal rights) and by outsourced professionals, such as psychopedagogues. Besides, most actions and practices have been grounded in technicist/New School pedagogies which emphasize individual differences, methods, techniques and instruments as ways of carrying out pedagogical work. This study concluded that a project of Special Education in Higher Education is needed. It must be based on the principles of Historical-critical Pedagogy (Saviani, 2010), found in the development of Articulated Teaching (Honnef, 2018), in which Special Education professors work collaboratively with other professors to mediate scientific knowledge in the search for omnilateral development of students who are supported by Special Education.

Keywords : Special Education; Higher Education; Disability; Pedagogical actions and practices..

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