THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES IN MEXICO AND BRAZIL: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article analyzes the organizational structure for students who receive support from Special Education in Mexico and Brazil. In this sense, it seeks to reflect on whether and how the way that the instituted modality of Special Education in different realities [can] guide educational processes and practices. The present study is related to a postdoctoral internship research linked to the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE) of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES). From this study, we delimit substantive beacons such as the broad right to education; the positive bet on the schooling process and on the educability of all subjects in regular school; the social responsibility of seeking approximations with local contexts and problems, to understand reality and collectively build possibilities. From the methodological point of view, it is an international comparative study that uses official documentary data and legislation from Mexico and Brazil. The analysis shows that in Mexico the list of students who demand Special Education services is much broader than that of the Brazilian reality, as it tries to encompass a broader conception of school inclusion. In addition, it has a coordination with national design with well-defined contours. In Brazil, we realized that despite having a delimitation of the Special Education public, funding is still an expensive issue for the area, as the data is difficult to access. It is concluded, therefore, that despite the different proposals, there are many approximations, and that Special Education, despite the challenges in common, both realities are in a process of construction and consolidation of a perspective of full school inclusion.