CONTRIBUTIONS OF VYGOTSKY’S DEFECTOLOGY STUDIES FOR THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES AT SCHOOL

ABSTRACT Despite all advances in inclusive educational policies implemented in Brazil in recent decades, students with disabilities still face prejudice, discrimination and various barriers (attitudinal, communicational, informational, among others) in schools that limit their human development in vygotskian terms. In view of this, this article aims to discuss how ableism operates in relation to people with disabilities in school education, analyzing some concepts formulated by Vygotsky in his defectology studies and, most importantly, his dialectical conception of disability and education. It is understood that this vygotskian conception offers theoretical support for the construction of inclusive educational practices that promote the human development of all students. Thus, in this article, the theoretical review is based on the aforementioned studies by Vygotsky and on the analysis of both academic literature and empirical research about the topic discussed here. It is concluded that Vygotsky’s teachings about the specificities of human development, when mediated by historical-critical pedagogy, prove to be essential for school inclusion and, therefore, for the full development of students with disabilities.