COLLABORATIVE WORK AT SCHOOL AS A DEMEDICALIZATION TOOL
Name: MIRIAN ESTEINER COSTA
Publication date: 11/04/2025
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ELIZABETE BASSANI | Examinador Interno |
| JAIR RONCHI FILHO | Presidente |
| MARIA RIZIANE COSTA PRATES | Examinador Externo |
Summary: This research seeks to analyze the collaborative work between the Specialized Educational Assistance (AEE) teacher and the regular classroom teacher from a demedicalizing perspective. The research intertwines collaborative work and medicalization. Thus, we relied on theoretical references that helped us understand the concept of medicalization: Collares and Moysés (1996), Caliman (2016), Illich (1975), Bassani (2018); and collaborative work: Capellini (2005), Zanata (2005), Mendes, Vilaronga and Zerbato (2022). We understand that the collaborative work carried out by the ESL teacher in the classroom is crossed by medicalizing discourses and the lack of knowledge on the subject means that their practices and outlooks contribute to the medicalization of teachers at school. Collaborative work is one of the ways in which these discourses are highlighted and can be problematized, with suggestions for a set of de-medicalizing practices aimed at transformation. We adopted a cartographic approach to carry out a qualitative case study. We chose field diaries and interviews as data production tools and, as far as the participants are concerned: the Management team (principal and supervisor), teachers of the 1st to 5th grade classes, teachers of specific areas, six special education students, the guardians of the six students and the Specialized Educational Assistance teacher (the on-site researcher) and data interpretation using Gill's Discourse Analysis (2002). The results indicated that Collaborative Work is a promising path towards demedicalization, benefiting all students and helping to guarantee access to learning, especially for students who are the target of Special Education. However, for this practice to be effective, it is essential to rethink the working conditions of teachers in Brazilian schools. It is also essential to understand that medicalization goes beyond the confines of the classroom and is deeply intertwined with social, economic and political issues. Ensuring adequate working conditions for teachers is also a way of contributing to the process of de-medicalization. In addition to the dissertation, we present an educational product, a children's literature book, extracted from the medicalizing discourses originating in the school environment and which could contribute to teacher training on demedicalizing practices between the ESL teacher and the ordinary classroom teacher.
