O Atendimento educacional especializado durante a pandemia de COVID-19: atuação do professor de apoio

Abstract

To ensure the full participation of students with disabilities in general education schools, as well as to guarantee their learning, schools must provide appropriate human and material resources. The learning support teacher is one of the available services in special needs education. The objective of this study was to identify the learning support teacher profile, as well as their strategies for assisting students with disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The qualitative research, with descriptive purposes, was carried out in a town in Mato Grosso do Sul state, with the consent of the Municipal Department of Education. Data were collected by online interviewing, via Google Meet, learning support teachers who worked, in 2020, with students attending the first years of primary education (first to fifth grade). As main results, the majority of the participating learning support teachers reported that they were able to address students’ special needs by adapting assessments given by general education teachers. Those adaptations usually involved games, videos, illustrations and even the reduction in the number of activities. Also, the study recognizes the importance of learning support teachers, families, other educators (general education teachers and the teacher responsible for the multifunctional resource room) and school administrators engaging as partners. The learning support teacher must be considered a main character in special needs education within general education schools, but they must not be seen as the only support alternative, since inclusive education should not only involve certain professionals, but the entire school staff and community.