The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015) points – in goal 4 – to inclusive and equitable education as a goal to be achieved in school systems worldwide. In Brazil, the challenges to achieve this goal have been great. However, there are regulatory frameworks – such as the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (Law No. 9394/96) – that sets forth the State’s duty to guarantee equitable access and permanence for all people in the school system.
Inclusive Education in the Brazilian Context
The Brazilian educational policy is in line with international documents, especially the World Conference on Special Needs Education (Salamanca, 1994), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006) and the Education 2030 – Incheon Declaration (Incheon, 2015).
Designed from the Federal Constitution (1988) to the National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (LDB, 1996), the new policy prioritized the “equality of conditions for access and permanence in school” (LDB/9394, art.3, item I) and proposed a significant change in the educational system. In its conception, the inclusion paradigm brought a technical and social impact on the Brazilian educational system. The need for changes in management processes, teacher training, educational methodologies with shared actions and collaborative practices that respond to the necessities of all students (Brazil, 2008) became evident.
Specifically, special education is one of the goals of the National Education Plan 2014-2024 (Brazil, 2014) to ensure the universal access of people with disabilities to the education system in the country, without segregating them in special schools. Special education ceased to take place in separate schools and began to be offered at all levels of the education system, by providing accessibility conditions and specialized services in schools. However, different researchers (Carvalho, 2005; Mantoan, 2015; Costa-Renders, 2018) point to some contradictions in this process, such as limited resources for inclusive education, the tendency to discriminate against students with disabilities within the school system, and the need for teacher training to build an accessible curriculum approach.
Recent data related to inclusion and equity in Brazilian elementary education indicate that students with disabilities are directed to schools with more resources. “However, the negative association between teachers’ expectations in relation to students and the proportion of this group of students in school stands out. That is, the higher the number of students with disabilities enrolled, the more the teaching expectations are modest” (UNESCO/Brazil, 2021, p.6).
In terms of access to the education system, Brazil has made great progress in enrolling students with disabilities. The National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Brazil, 2019) pointed out the significant growth in enrollment of these students in schools, totaling 87.2%. Consequently, there is a gradual reduction in enrollments in exclusive classes and schools, totaling 12.8%. However, there are still important challenges in this process.
The development of new special education practices is fundamental for an inclusive school. Therefore, it is important to broaden the understanding of special education, by creating communities of knowledge that promote the discussion on inclusive teaching practice. This scenario shows that the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can support the construction of special education from an inclusive perspective in Brazilian schools, by proposing a curricular approach accessible to everyone.
In Brazil, the National Education Plan 2014-2024 recommends “fostering the continuing education of male and female teachers for specialized educational services” (Brazil, 2014). Directly related to the necessary changes for inclusive education is the professional development in this new school. However, this document does not consider this training perspective. Thus, it is relevant to formulate technical pedagogical propositions for special education from an inclusive perspective.