Inclusive education and the representations of students on their patients with disabilities

Abstract Inclusive education proposes the valuation of the diversity present in society, including people with disabilities. However, there is still a predominance of integrative practices in schools. The purpose of this research was to identify the representations that students without disabilities elaborate on the child with a physical disability in the daily school life. These representations had analyzed from the Theory of Thinking Models. Twenty-seven children aged 6 to 8 years participated in this study of schools in a municipal school network. They had interviewed individually, based on a fictitious situation of conflict. As results, we can list the prevalence of the medical model on the deficiencies, which unfold in prejudice and stigmatization. The representations had centered on the limitations of the subject with disability and the attribution, to him, of negative feelings. From this, there is a need to promote the understanding of inclusion based on a social perspective.