CHILDREN IN INSTITUTIONAL CARE AND SCHOOL EDUCATION: WHAT DO TEACHERS THINK ABOUT IT?

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the teachers’ conception about children in institutional care attending regular elementary school in a city of Sao Paulo state. Eight teachers participated in the study. The selection criteria were the schooling stage, their availability and interest in participating in the research. We used semi-structured interview and content analysis for the treatment of data. The results were analyzed in categories: sheltered child’s attribute, attribute causes, treatment given by the teachers, effect on schooling. In the analytical reflection, those categories were divided into subcategories and descriptor concepts. The teachers showed many meanings, which determines a reductionist pedagogical action: sheltered children are seen as repositories of attributes mistaken as nature of that individual or as consequences of deprivation and suffering conditions. This leads to difficulties in performing practices because they don’t consider the possibility of a technical teaching action that acknowledge the difficulty in proposing pedagogical solutions, less fossilized by prejudices that exclude and stigmatize.