Teacher training and special education: The contours of a conversation in the Brazilian context

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the main contours of the debate on the training of special education teachers in Brazil. Using a qualitative approach and the methods of cartography, we analyzed the transcriptions of group meetings from four events involving special education researchers. The analyses were linked to the researchers’ ideas and highlight the following points: the need to question empirical perspectives associated with knowledge construction within special education teacher training, acknowledging a lack of methods about how certain people learn; the need for formative courses based on experience, however incomplete and unpredictable; and the emergent views of special education teacher training as a space to strengthen teaching action, focusing on pedagogical networks with an emphasis on common teaching.