The disconcerting student: autistic children in regular schooling

Abstract

This is a case study on the school inclusiveness of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) conducted within a public basic education school, linked to the education college of a public university. It is intended to present paradigmatic moments of two processes contrasting with an overall scenario in which such students are, as a general rule, relegated to ostracism, that is, they are excluded from within the school itself. The study took place from 2019 through 2021 and included: contextualized observation of the students, analysis of their classroom productions and their respective individual study plans, attendance to pedagogical meetings where cases were discussed, and teachers´ testimonies. Data were analyzed in the light of key concepts arising from the intersection of the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis with education, namely the concepts of “subject of knowledge” and “subject of the unconscious”. The results point to the need to consider the inclusion of ASD students into regular schooling – simultaneously in terms of school learning and social bonding – by, for example, assigning social meaning to their idiosyncrasies. In other words, it intends to consider the truth in the desire of such individuals which is quite compromised in their psychic structuring and, at the same time, their own way of thinking and apprehending the objective reality. After all, when it comes to inclusiveness within the schools, it is indispensable to take into account the teaching and learning practices which make up their very reason of being. The study concludes that a collective investment is necessary on the part of the educators in order to ensure the feasibility of including those students and, as this involve radically singular processes, it is advised that it is impossible to generalize them on the macro-social level. That is to say, only on a case-by-case basis it is possible to assess the success or failure associated with the schooling of ASD students in regular classrooms. However, this does not prevent, on the other hand, from pointing out some general guidelines.