The role of collaboration in the continued tutelage of teachers for inclusive and collaborative contexts

Abstract

The objective of this work was to present a method of training developed in a school within the city of Natal/RN, Brazil. It was a collaborative training method founded in the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, which had the goal of creating spaces for the sharing and development of knowledge for the organization of a cooperative and inclusive work at school. This was done in two parts, with the first being performed between the months of October and December of 2021 and the second between May and June of 2022. Ten meetings were done online, in which participated middle school teachers of earlier and later grades, special education teachers, teachers proficient in LIBRAS, teachers that performed administrative work at the school, in addition to pedagogy scholars and students, for a total of 25 participants. Each meeting was planned with mediator artifacts in mind to initiate collective reflection about on the pedagogic work at the school. In turn, it was defined that the meetings would continue based on the discussed subject and the interest of the people. Over the course of the meetings, the participants articulated possibilities to promote a collaboration that supported the inclusion of students with SEN, both by developing new tools and by resuming the use of other tools that already existed. It is important to highlight that it was central to have a team to conduct the training. The tutelage of the teachers founded in collaboration was a difficult challenge, however, the results achieved showed that it is in fact possible for teachers to engage and be protagonists, reflecting about their own practices and collectively proposing much needed changes.