CREATING NETWORKS: SPECIAL EDUCATION SUPPORT SERVICES IN THE CITY OF PORTO ALEGRE

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze services specialized in special education, placing emphasis on the resource room and the role it plays in the Porto Alegre Public School District. The analysis is based on studies developed at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul which discuss the existence of a political-pedagogical plan for the school district which is in tune with a perspective of educational inclusion. This trend, which has been predominant over the course of recent years, has demanded educational service spaces to undergo a process of intense resignification, in favor of broadening the spectrum of students served in regular classes and redefining teaching practices. The paper presents the main changes introduced to the school district in terms of curricular reorganization, focusing on: flexibility, collective participation, planning and evaluation collaboration, the need for valuing assisting spaces as educational spaces. Fourteen “integration and resource rooms”, as they are called by the district in question, are destined to serve students with special educational needs, involving the work of 28 special educational educators and serving a total of approximately 600 students. Besides direct student services, there is also on-going discussion regarding the responsibility teachers working in these rooms have in assisting and providing council towards the education of teachers working in the classrooms. The main aspect analyzed in this service/education relationship concerns the necessity to include service guidelines which are in tune with the district’s political-pedagogical general guidelines, as well as the recognition that the viability and the effect of this educational proposal is based on: the plurality of lived experience, the manner in which different types of knowledge interact and the reflective capacity which teaching practice involves. Key words: Education; Special education; Educational inclusion; Specialized support services; Resource room.