School management. Inclusion. Special education policies. Continuing education.

The research entitled School Management and Inclusion: Walking paths to an inclusive school was developed in the Graduate Program in Education - Academic Master's in Education - PPGE / IFC Campus Camboriú, in the line of research Educational Processes and Inclusion and carried out in the municipal school system from Tijucas/SC. In this study, we understand school inclusion as a right for everyone to a socially referenced quality public education, and our object of study is characterized by the interface between the fields of knowledge Special Education and School Management interrelated to the process of inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities. in the regular education network. The theoretical references permeated the legal documents and scientific productions that discuss School Management intersected with Special Education. Anchored in the studies of Bordignon and Gracindo (2001), Ferreira (2001), Libâneo; Oliveira and Toschi (2012); Libâneo (2013) and Paro (2016) consider that school managers have the possibility to create an inclusive school culture, materializing in everyday actions, what is recommended in current legislation. However, we infer that the conduct of democratic management with inclusive perspectives is not effective without practical and theoretical knowledge of educational policies, especially the National Policy on Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education (2008). To discuss school inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities in the regular school system, we used studies by Glat and Blanco (2009), Mazzotta (2011), Pletsch (2014), Mendes (2015), Nuernberg (2020) and Mantoan (2003). ; 2008; 2020). The research was conducted by the problem question: how does the continuing education of school managers influence the forwarding of actions that generate inclusive cultures and practices in the municipal network of Tijucas/SC? The study aimed to analyze to what extent the continuing education of school managers can contribute to the realization of cultures and practices of inclusion in school units of the municipal education network of Tijucas/SC. The qualitative approach research (MINAYO, 2000; LUDKE; ANDRÉ, 2013) presents elements and characteristics of the Participant Research (GIL, 2010; THIOLLENT, 2011), since researchers and participants/researched people are involved, reflecting on the relationship between theory and practice in the search for solutions to real situations evidenced in the field of research. Data collection used a semi-structured questionnaire (SEVERINO, 2007) directed to managers, in order to identify their training needs, followed by participant observation (NETO, 2000; THIOLLENT, 2011) and document analysis (SEVERINO, 2007; LUDKE; ANDRE, 2013). Based on the analysis of the data collected, we carried out continuous training for managers, contemplating the themes listed as their training needs. After the training was offered, we held a collective interview with the managers, made possible by the Focal Group technical procedure (GATTI, 2005). The analyzes were mediated by the descriptive, critical and interpretive analytical perspective (TRIVIÑOS, 1987; ROSENTHAL, 2014). Thus, after triangulating the data, the results showed that the school managers surveyed participating in this study do not know the educational legislation, especially the National Policy on Special Education in the Perspective of Inclusive Education of 2008; they do not see themselves as responsible for the process of inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities in their school units; the materialization of the policy collides with several factors that range from the historical issues of exclusion and segregation of the educability of people with disabilities, developed in parallel to regular education and that perpetuate stigmas that constitute barriers to ableist attitudes; the Special Education modality is still made invisible and secondary within the municipal education system, reflecting this invisibility in the actions and attitudes of school managers. Thus, we continue to see and hear that school inclusion continues as enunciated and announced in official discourses and far from being effective in meaningful learning processes. In this way, managers transfer responsibility to the Municipal Department of Education or directly to the Special Education professionals who work there, incurring the much-discussed exclusionary inclusion. Speeches that the school is not prepared to receive the target audience of Special Education are common and assert that theory is distanced from everyday practice. However, we understand that these conceptions serve to justify inconsistencies in their actions. It is a fact that they always wait for external initiatives for changes to take place, forgetting that, as managers, they are the articulators of this process.