Vygotsky's legacy in Brazilian inclusive education: (Trans)formation and singularity

Context and relevance. The study investigates the contributions of Lev Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory to Brazilian special/inclusive education, particularly regarding the constitution of the subject with autism in school contexts. The theoretical framework is grounded in the concepts of drama, freedom and singularity, understanding the schooling process as a privileged pathway of human (trans)formation. Objective. To analyse how pedagogical knowledge impacts the constitution of the child with autism, based on the notion of constitutive singularity. Hypothesis. The schooling process anchored in critical-emancipatory pedagogical knowledge operates as a promoter of the subject's humanisation, in opposition to traditional clinical approaches that reduce the subject to diagnosis and to ableist perspectives that position them in a state of devaluation. Methods and materials. The research, adopting a cultural-historical approach, was configured as intervention-research with an eight-year-old student with autism, enrolled in the second year of primary education. Video recordings, audio recordings, photographs, field diaries and interviews with the teacher, the child and his mother were utilised. Data were analysed through the microgenetic approach. Results. The analysis of two paradigmatic episodes of story retelling through illustration and physical education class evidences that the child, upon inserting personal elements into school tasks, manifests his will and singularises himself, expressing the drama of the social personality as a struggle for existence. Conclusions. Understanding singularity as a dialectical, historical, cultural and dramatic process allows us to overcome pathologising views and to recognise that disability is not a destiny, but a condition that, in relations with others and with culture, can be transformed into potentiality.