2.1 Research participants and location

The research covered five teachers from two schools located close to the border between Brazil (Ponta Porã) and Paraguay (Pedro Juan Caballero). Of the five participants, two worked in the multifunctional resource room and three in the regular classroom. The inclusion criteria were: to work in schools close to the border line, since they are the ones that most attend Paraguayan students due to the easy access; develop their professional activities with target students of Special Education; and authorize the use of the interview as data collection. The exclusion criteria were not to deliver the Informed Consent Form (ICF) and not to work with students who are the target population of Special Education.

All participants were pedagogues, one of whom had a teaching license in Portuguese Language and its Literature with Spanish habilitation. To maintain anonymity, the abbreviations T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 were used, in reference to teachers; and S1 and S2, in reference to schools. All participants read, write and speak Portuguese (Table 1).

In the research data, it was observed that four teachers have more than a decade of experience in teaching and one has two years. None of them read or write in Guarani, and only one speaks that language. T1 has a specialization in Specialized Educational Service and Psychopedagogy, T2 and T4 have specialization in the initial grades of Elementary School and Early Childhood Education, T5 is a specialist in Psychomotricity and Special Education, and T3 has no specialization title.

2.2 Data collection and analysis

The instrument used for data collection was a semi-structured interview containing eight questions that explored the teachers’ knowledge about Special Education in the perspective of school inclusion, cultural and linguistic diversity, taking into account the context of the schools surveyed, the professional training of the participants and the target Paraguayan student of Special Education.

Contact was made with the two school principals of the participating schools to present the research, when there was adherence with the delivery of the authorization term signed by them. Subsequently, visits were made to these institutions to present the research to teachers and invitation to participate, with the delivery of the ICF. In the following contact, the ICFs were collected and the interviews were scheduled for the period destined to the hours of activities of the teachers.

From School 1, two teachers participated; and, from School 2, three teachers participated. The interviews were conducted individually, in the teachers’ room and in the multifunctional resource room. The data were organized through the transcription of the interviews, with their subsequent rereading and qualitative analysis of the information. From this analysis, categories were organized to present and discuss the results.

3.1 Teachers’ perceptions about inclusive Special Education

The perspective of school inclusion is essential to think about offering quality education for all, regardless of ethnic origin, disability, developmental disorders or social and economic condition. ^{Carvalho’s proposition (2014)} reiterates that the school can be an inclusive space, not only because students occupy the physical space, but it is necessary to consider individual differences and not assume a homogenizing character.

These aspects reiterate the importance of the teacher understanding conceptual, legal and pedagogical elements of inclusive Special Education. Thus, there will be better conditions to participate in the school inclusion process for all students. The research data made the apprehension of the teachers’ understanding of inclusive Special Education possible.

That favors all groups of students regardless of diversity, race, color - Paraguayans, thinking about my reality. Inclusion is not just about special education, it cuts across our border city, which has specificities. Remember these differences and work in the classroom, not only for the student with disability. (T1/S1).

This teacher’s ideas are in line with what ^{Carvalho (2016}) says, when considering that the proposal for inclusive education should offer a means of breaking barriers to learning; and also ^{Mantoan (2015)}, when exposing that educational actions should be based on valuing and respecting difference, with inclusion being the product of a plural, democratic and transgressive education.

The proposal of T1/S2, aimed at including Paraguayan students in Brazilian border schools, is an act of transgression when considering that ^{Melo, Stivanello, Silva and Silva (2016)} reported that the teachers responsible for educational practices with Paraguayan students did not value multiculturalism, depriving them of demonstrating or assuming their cultural characteristics, such as the use of Guarani and Spanish languages to communicate. In this direction, ^{Dalinghaus (2009)} observed that the teachers show prejudice towards the Brazilian and Paraguayan students, considering them disinterested.

In this study, teachers’ understanding of Special Education was observed from the perspective of school inclusion articulated to meet the specificities of students: “inclusive education is to include all students in the same context in the regular classroom. As much as they have diversities, they should look for activities to promote the socialization and inclusion of all through play” (T2/S1). Another teacher stated “that these children in this situation of disability need assistance within their needs and, therefore, inclusive education” (T2/S2). Thus, education is the best way to break the exclusion of students, whether they are disabled or not (Souza, 2018). For this, it is necessary that teachers and the entire school body understand the concept of inclusion fully, as a continuous process for anyone’s learning (^{Carvalho, 2016}).

Special Education in inclusive schools requires student-centered pedagogy, with the modification of discriminatory attitudes, the creation of welcoming communities and the development of an inclusive society (Salamanca Statement, 1994). For that, it is imperative that educational practices in the border region be guided by the idea that “human differences are normal and that learning must accordingly be adapted to the needs of the child rather than the child fitted to preordained assumptions regarding the pace and nature of the learning process” (Salamanca Declaration, 1994, p. 6).

Participant T1/S2 reported that inclusive education is “an education that will include the special sayings, with the normal sayings without disabilities”, and it is worth pointing out that “when establishing its clientele as one that presents ‘deviations’ in biological, statistical characteristics psychological or social, special education reproduces, in its scope of action, the participation-exclusion process” (^{Wanderley, 1999}). Due to that, in the view of teachers, students considered normal are those who meet expectations and learn in the time estimated by them, while “special” students are those who need pedagogical support, considering their disability as a determining element of their school failure (^{Mantoan, 2015}). However, “the rules imprint the way of behaving and living, but at the same time there is always the possibility of an interruption, of a new direction” (^{Freitas, 2012}, p. 495).

Inclusion is failing to exclude, understanding that everyone is part of a community and has rights and duties. In this sense, it is not intended only for the target population of Special Education. In addition, students who need specialized educational assistance should not be deprived of studying in the same environment as the others, with this assistance being an instrument for inclusion, as opposed to exclusion.

3.2 Perspectives of teachers about border, “Brasiguaio” and/or Paraguayan

As already explained, in the context of the Ponta Porã - Pedro Juan Caballero border, it is common for students residing in Paraguay to travel to study in Brazilian schools. They usually have Guarani and/or Spanish as their mother tongue, however they are literate in Portuguese. Thus, trilingualism and bilingualism are present in these institutions due to the interaction between the two cities (^{Pereira, 2010}). Despite this scenario of linguistic diversity, in schools located in Ponta Porã, Portuguese is valued, with the other languages being ignored (^{Dalinghaus, 2009}).

The language is one of the outstanding cultural elements of the Paraguayan student; however, his hybrid writing is stigmatized in the Brazilian school context. In addition, in the context of national borders and in the face of international migration processes, the identity of the Brazilian takes on different meanings, but mainly negative both on the Brazilian and on the Paraguayan side (^{Colognese, 2012}).

The study by ^{Colognese (2012)} considered that brasiguaios have an identity under construction on the border, which would be characterized as a place for different encounters and disagreements. According to the author, the immigration processes of Brazilians to Paraguay and the emergence of the Brazilian identity would have a “relational character, and could assume meanings of conflict or integration. That is why subjects can either accept these assigned identities or not, whether or not they assume different self-identities” (Colognese, 2012, p. 155).

To ^{Mondardo (2009)}, being a frontier implies the sharing of cultures; in this way, the Brazilian appropriates the culture of Paraguay and vice-versa. The teachers’ view and explanation about the Brazilian and/or borderline make the understanding of the recognition, belonging and particularities of Paraguayan students in Brazilian schools possible. It is possible the denial and the invisibility of linguistic diversity of this target population of Special Education in Brazil by the teachers, as analyzed in T1/S2 statement - “I never had to think about it, it may even be that there are border students, but they all dominate Portuguese”- and also T2/S2 statement: “ they are from the border, but speak Portuguese fluently, the parents are Paraguayans”.

The Paraguayan student has Guarani and/or Spanish as their mother tongue. The performance and educational practices with them, the target population of Special Education, require a look at this particularity, in order to constitute a positive view about themselves, the cultural aspects of their people and their context of coexistence. The negative expectations that fall on people from devalued and stigmatized cultures can lead to the appropriation of the dominant culture. These cases are eminent in the classroom of Brazilian dry border schools.

Since “competing conceptions of equality and difference, people and social groups have the right to be equal when difference makes them inferior, and the right to be different when equality de-characterizes them” (^{Santos, 1997}, p. 122) , in multicultural border schools it is important to break with thoughts and practices that lead to exclusion, denial and invisibility from the other who is different. However, there are target Paraguayan students of Special Education who do not expose their ethnic origin and the fact that they are bilingual or trilingual:

I currently believe that more than half of the students I attend in the resource room are Paraguayans, and my first challenge was with a Paraguayan and deaf student. And my biggest challenge to date is communication, and the parents’ refusal to declare their children as Paraguayans. They are afraid and believe that they will lose their place at school. (T1/S1).

Thus, the devaluation and submission of the Paraguayan student to Brazilian culture in border schools in Ponta Porã, as well as their parents, is imminent, by not considering them Paraguayans. Some elements of what it means to be a frontier and a Brazilian were presented in the report of the participants of this research, in which the Paraguayan identity appears influenced by the approximations and also by the conflicts and prejudiced impressions reinforced in border areas.

All the students I attend today are Brazilian frontiersmen. For me there are differences, but they are part of the same cultural context as me: I am Brazilian, my mother is Paraguayan and my father is Brazilian. Here at the school everyone is Brazilian. Some deny, are afraid, are inferior. (T2/S1).

In the view of this teacher, one of the characteristics of “brasiguaio” is to have emotional and family ties, an aspect also pointed out by ^{Santana (2018}). In addition, “brasiguaians” deny elements of their culture because of fear and inferiority, which, according to ^{Colognese (2012)}, exist on both sides of the border. The historical marks of the Paraguayan War, which occurred between 1864 and 1870, persist, in which the Paraguayans demonstrate a negative image of the Brazilians, “reinforced by the victory in the war and by the impressions passed in the contact with the border areas, [and] Brazilians feed an image of Paraguayans as lazy, inferior and disorganized” (Colognese, 2012, p. 152).

In addition, the denial of Paraguayan identity appeared related to the access to services available in Brazil, as stated by T3/S1: “here at school almost everyone is from Brazil, but there are many who are exclusively Paraguayan and there is a lot of difference in culture, but I believe the most serious thing is that they don’t assume their identity. Parents are afraid of losing their place, and in Brazil they have more rights”.

In this regard, ^{Santos (2008}, p. 439) states that “it is more interesting to keep this hidden identity that makes it difficult to occupy a place to which they are entitled in a country that boasts education for all, but that the policy of exclusion still prevails”. It is easier to ignore the culture that makes homogenization more difficult than to accept the difference and break with established standards that prioritize the subject and its historical and cultural aspects (^{Deleuze, 1992}).

3.3 Pedagogical practices, challenges and inclusive Special Education in cultural and linguistic diversity

It is evident that Brazilian schools have numerous challenges for the inclusion of students. To ^{Carvalho (2016)}, the problems faced by teachers, students and others involved go beyond physical, furniture and architectural aspects, as they encompass the pedagogical proposal unrelated to the students’ reality and the training of professionals. The perceived challenges in pedagogical practice aimed at the inclusion of the target Paraguayan students of Special Education in a context of cultural and linguistic diversity involve both material and human resources and curricular adaptation, which should at least respect their mother tongues:

At first I was discouraged, today I see that I recognize my students better because of the difficulties, that the barriers make me want to overcome them, and then go after new means, building materials. There is not much investment, even in the sense of money, investment of time and material, more importance should be given to the life of others. So imagine the handicapped Paraguayan - he suffers double prejudice, the work is also greater, there is no support, nobody tells us: we are going to take a course on diversity and we are going to learn Guarani or Spanish. (T1/S1).

I cannot say that there are no challenges. As much as the caregivers have it, it is me who thinks about activities, organizes classes. I was never prepared. And there is a lack of support, everyone criticizes, but there are few to help. There is no material, now some are being built, we used to have nothing. But we build it with recyclable materials. (T2/S1).

It is so constructive when the university sends you to school, you bring a young soul and infect us, because we are often discouraged and you bring hopes and indispensable partnerships. (T2/S2).

The target Paraguayan student of Special Education suffers prejudices related to his identity, cultural and linguistic issues, disability or developmental disorder, among other conditions. Given the absence of support and the unavailability of theoretical and methodological resources to work with linguistic diversity, working in inclusive Special Education in Brazil to meet these specificities of Paraguayan students can generate feelings of helplessness in the teacher.

According to ^{Mantoan (2015)}, the challenges need to be overcome, for this it is necessary the support of public agencies, with the implementation of policies that guarantee human rights. And, in the context in which the participants of this research work, there is an absence of policies and projects developed by the management of public education in the municipal, state and federal spheres that guarantee the dialogue between intercultural education and the Special Education modality in the school inclusion perspective.

It was also reported that there are “many structural and material challenges in addition to the lack of parents at school” (T1/S2) and that “lack of support from parents, everything is left to the school. In addition to structural challenges and lack of investment since my initial training” (T2/S2). It is necessary that, from the initial training, the future teacher is made aware of the realization of practices that do not reinforce prejudices, but, rather, of critical and emancipatory attitudes (^{Santana, 2018}).

It is also worth noting that these teachers’ statements expose issues related to the family-school relationship. The research conducted by ^{Oliveira and Marinho-Araújo (2010}) points to a relationship characterized by problematic situations, the action of the school institution in guiding family members on how to educate their children and the decrease in parental participation in school tasks as the child progresses in school grades. However, the authors emphasize that “the aspects that constitute and intervene in the relationship between these two contexts, whether as barriers to collaboration or contributing to their promotion, are not yet sufficiently established” (Oliveira & Marinho-Araújo, 2010, p. 100).

The study performed by ^{Schlosser and Frasson (2012)}, on the immigration of students from the first stage of Basic Education from Paraguay to Brazil in municipal public schools in Santa Terezinha de Itaipu, in Paraná, pointed out as an indicative element of the family-school relationship, orientation for parents about pedagogical support, the resource room and the necessary documentation for enrollment in Brazilian schools.

The family-school relationship was constituted, and is still sustained, as a consequence of “situations linked to some type of problem and, thus, it does little for the two institutions to build a partnership based on positive and rewarding factors related to learning, student development and success” (^{Oliveira & Marinho-Araújo, 2010}, p. 107). In Special Education from the perspective of school inclusion, the family and the school must intensify their relationship to favor the growth and development of students.

The National Policy on Special Education in the Perspective of Inclusive Education (2008) recommends the orientation of education systems to promote responses to the educational needs of students, ensuring family and community participation. Special Education covers all levels, stages and modalities of teaching and learning in common classes. One of the inclusion devices is the Specialized Educational Service, which needs to “involve the participation of the family to guarantee full access and participation of the students” (Decree nº 7,611, 2011).

The relationship between the school and the family of a Paraguayan student, the target population of Special Education, is a challenge that signals the need for a closer relationship between these institutions, since the teachers reported the lack of support and the absence of parents in school. However, there is a need for investigations focusing on this topic in order to: a) investigate the relationship of the family of Paraguayan students, who probably dominate the Guarani and/or Spanish languages, with the school; and b) collaborate with the elements relevant to the educational process through a relationship instigated by shared accountability.

Furthermore, it is worth remembering that the relationship between these institutions “has been characterized by being a poorly harmonious and satisfactory phenomenon, since the expectations of each institution or of each actor involved are not met” (^{Oliveira & Marinho-Araújo, 2010}, p. 107). For researchers, scholars and education professionals in border schools, it is appropriate to alert and provoke the “family-school relationship in the sense that it can be associated with positive and pleasant events and that it effectively contributes to socialization, learning and development processes” (Oliveira & Marinho-Araújo, 2010, p. 107).

The border schools of Ponta Porã constitute a multicultural and plurilingual context (Portuguese, Spanish and Guarani), with a predominance of the Portuguese language. In the interviewees’ reports, the influence of the use of Spanish and/or Guarani by the teachers in their pedagogical practices with target Paraguayan students of Special Education was evidenced.

I learned to act in practice, my training was done with them, neither the undergraduate course nor specialization contributed as much as contact, I understand Spanish, I speak a little, but Guarani I do not speak at all and I understand few words. I’ll give you the example of the deaf girl, I adopted the method of using the mother tongue, as she was familiar with the family language, so I showed the image, the writing in Spanish and signed. Currently, as you can see on my posters, I adopt the use of writing in two languages. (T1/S1).

The teacher’s action demonstrates the perception of the target Paraguayan student of Special Education in addition to organic conditions, considering his cultural and linguistic peculiarities. This signals the adoption of the social model of disability, as opposed to the individual model, which considers it an intrinsic attribute of the person. Thus, the need to see the individual in social and cultural aspects is emphasized, not only in the immutable biological sense, but as a historical subject (Vygotsky, 2011). At the border school, it is possible to verify the search for methodologies that take into account the cultural and social aspects of the Paraguayan student in Brazilian schools located close to the border strip.

Because I speak Spanish, I have no difficulty interacting and talking to them, I can go on doing translations. Border students have a desire to learn the other language, but one of the facts is the difficulty in registering. Now, for a Brazilian child it is very difficult to be interested in the Guarani language. Parents always encourage them to learn English, even though they know the environment in which they live, so I try to value the mother tongue of frontier people. Now, those with disabilities who are Paraguayans, I follow the same principle of cultural appreciation. I make comparisons and translations with the three languages, showing images, objects and proper names of the classroom. (P2/E2).

There is an investment in pedagogical practices that consider the target Paraguayan student of Special Education, approaching the need pointed out by ^{Carvalho (2016}) to promote educational actions based on intercultural education to reinforce plurilingualism and multiculturalism. It is also noted that “the ‘disability’ or ‘limits’, if they exist, can no longer be used as an ‘alibi’, as a justification for stagnation, impoverished education, discrimination or exclusion” (^{Costa, 2006}, p. 239).

The process of including Paraguayan children a while ago was difficult. Nowadays it is easier, not that everything is 100% right, but we are on the way. The Paraguayan with disability is a little more difficult, the difference is that many teachers speak Guarani. My training allows me to communicate in Spanish and I use it in the classroom, the Guarani student doesn’t understand anything and that’s my difficulty, that’s why I don’t consider myself an inclusive teacher, but one day I want to achieve it. As I didn’t speak Guarani, I counted on the help of colleagues who spoke Guarani. We exchange ideas, and we go in search of resources, working with regional music. And even special students are those who arrive speaking only in Guarani, not even in Spanish. (T3/S1).

In addition to architectural aspects, accessibility includes the curriculum, teaching materials, attitudes, among others. The barriers to inclusion were and are produced and created socially and culturally by man, and can be removable or modifiable to include people. There is evidence of this in the account of participant T3/S1, who reiterates the need for differentiated pedagogical approaches for foreign students in Brazilian schools. They should consider “Portuguese as a non-mother tongue and/or consider the plural linguistic repertoire of students in order to provide not only access to school, but mainly the valorization of their languages as a means of promoting success in the various stages of schooling and permanence” (^{Berger, 2015}, p. 148).

Pedagogical practices are crucial for the development of the target Paraguayan student of Special Education in Brazil, and must work on social, cognitive and cultural aspects, especially considering his linguistic diversity. From the reading of socio-historical cultural psychology, it is possible to suggest as necessary the creation of interactions and pedagogical mediations that enhance students’ knowledge. It is understood that the obstacles are produced in a historical, cultural and social way. From this perspective, one of the main barriers to the school inclusion of Paraguayan students in Brazilian schools is the invisibility of their peculiarities, which limits pedagogical practice.

These ideas are corroborated by the assumptions of Vygotsky (2011) about defectology, development and the education of the abnormal child. Therefore, there are important educational practices that consider the cultural and social aspects of the student’s learning and development, because, “when entering the culture, the child not only takes something from it, acquires something, instills in itself something from the outside, but also the culture itself re-elaborates all the child’s natural behavior and redoes the entire course of development in a new way ”(Vygotsky, 2011, p. 866). The disability is seen, in addition to the lack and defect, as a “stimulus to the development of alternative, indirect adaptation paths, which replace or superimpose functions that seek to compensate the disability and lead the entire broken system to a new order” (Vygotsky, 2011, p. 869). In this sense, cultural development is seen as the main compensating element of disability.

In this research, there are teachers who can read, write and speak Spanish and or Guarani; however, there is also the opposite: professionals who have never worked with Paraguayan students, the target population of Special Education in Brazil, such as the participant T1/S2, who says that “I never worked with Paraguayans, it may be that some are, but they all speak Portuguese. It would be an even greater challenge - even with those who are not disabled I cannot communicate, with a disabled Paraguayan I would panic!”. This account is close to the idea of ^{Dalinghaus (2009)} that the cultural identity of the Brazilian and Paraguayan student has been ignored in the school environment.

By not using their mother tongue, Paraguayan students in a Brazilian school context deny the elements of their cultural identity - generally, “they are identified as introverted, modest, quiet” (^{Schlosser & Frasson, 2012}, p. 20). This aspect needs to be considered by teachers who work in the area of inclusive Special Education in the border region. The organic and psychosocial conditions of students cannot be ignored in removing barriers to learning, adding to them other influences and participations, such as the teacher, the school institution, public policies, the implications of ideological aspects in the educational system (^{Carvalho, 2007}).

In the border region, in addition to the already known barriers, linguistic barriers should be considered, since the native languages of Paraguayan and “Brasiguaios” students, Guarani and Spanish, are devalued. Stigmatized by cultural and linguistic inferiority, these students may have their socially produced deficiencies, as secondary disabilities, and thus be held responsible for their own failure, which makes the process of school inclusion even more complex.

There are still challenges in education in the border region, highlighting the need to rethink the initial and continuing training of professionals in the area of inclusive Special Education and the improvement in the relationship between the family of Paraguayan students and the school. The findings also point out teachers’ difficulties due to language barriers, which can reinforce students’ disabilities, imposing secondary disabilities.

In this research, advances were observed in the inclusion of target Paraguayan students of Special Education in a scenario of cultural and linguistic diversity on the border between Ponta Porã, in Brazil, and Pedro Juan Caballero, in Paraguay. Among the advances, one can find the interest shown by teachers in expanding their knowledge to work with target students of Special Education, recognizing the cultural and linguistic diversity involved in this scenario. Another advance is the construction of teaching materials considering the peculiarities of Paraguayan students whose native language is Guarani and/or Spanish.