Entre a inclusão e a formação contínua: possibilidades do Desenho Universal para Aprendizagem (DUA) no ensino de crianças com TEA

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the inclusion of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Early Childhood Education, focusing on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The overall objective is to analyze UDL as an inclusive pedagogical approach within the teaching and learning processes of children with ASD in Early Childhood Education. The specific objectives are articulated throughout the chapters, which address: the history of Special and Inclusive Education; the implications of ASD in Early Childhood Education; the potential of UDL; teacher professional development; and teachers’ perceptions regarding inclusion and the applicability of UDL. The study is guided by the following research question: To what extent does the implementation of UDL principles contribute to consolidating inclusive pedagogical practices in the teaching and learning processes of children with ASD in Early Childhood Education? From this perspective, the dissertation examines teacher professional development, pedagogical practices, and inclusive strategies and tools, highlighting gaps in initial teacher education. Within this context, the study designs and presents an educational product a Digital Lapbook on the use of UDL to be made available to Early Childhood Education teachers. The empirical setting of the study is a public Early Childhood Education school in the municipal school system of São Luís, Maranhão, and the participants are teachers working in mainstream classrooms that include children diagnosed with ASD. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative and exploratory approach. The literature review is organized around the following analytical categories: teacher professional development, inclusion, Universal Design for Learning, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Data collection included semi- structured interviews, observation, and a pedagogical experimentation laboratory for product validation. For the organization and analysis of the corpus, the study applies Content Analysis as systematized by Bardin (2011), following the stages of pre-analysis, material exploration, and treatment of results through inference and interpretation. The findings indicate that, after validation, the developed product proved to be effective and was positively evaluated as an inclusive resource to support the teaching and learning processes of children. The dissertation concludes that this study offers relevant contributions to advancing research in teacher education and inclusive educational practices grounded in Universal Design for Learning