O Centro Nacional de Educação Especial e o atendimento aos “excepcionais”: antecedentes, atores e ações institucionais (1950-1979)

Abstract

The present research integrates a set of theoretical, historical and political studies developed by the Observatory Research Group on Special Education and Educational Inclusion (ObEE). The general objective of this study is to investigate and analyze the creation of the National Center for Special Education (CENESP) and the actions carried out by CENESP from 1973 to 1979. CENESP was the first officially established sector to manage a national policy of Special Education, for all categories of "exceptionality" and focused on schooling. The research was developed from the qualitative research, with the presuppositions of the oral research. The information about CENESP was systematized based on the research in official documents and the specialized bibliography on the subject and in dialogue with the analyzes of the interviews. The data were examined in order to understand the background to the creation of CENESP (context, people, institutions and actions), explanations for the implementation of this body and activities developed by the Center. The interviews were conducted with Sarah Couto Cesar: first director general of CENESP and who participated actively in different initiatives in the Brazilian educational field throughout the decades of 1950 to 1970. The results showed that the role of CENESP was to implement a policy of educational service for the "exceptional", marked by the economic, political and educational context of the time. On the one hand, with permanence of practices, people and institutions and, on the other hand, with the expansion of the public served, the explicit need for the creation of specific sectors for Special Education in all administrative instances and the formation at a higher level for teachers.