Representações sociais sobre aprendizagem e desenvolvimento humano e práticas profissionais no atendimento à queixa escolar

Abstract

The present dissertation is the final result of a research whose purpose was to discuss the issue of school complaints from the perspective of social representations about learning processes and human development. A large part of the debate on the subject is related to the transformation of school issues into supposed health problems, which has been conventionally called the pathologization of schooling processes. This context has generated a multitude of referrals of students to health services and evaluations, consequently, resulting in an action of medicalizing children and adolescents who do not fit the required school standards. In view of this, the objective of the research was to find out which social representations health professionals who meet these demands have on the phenomena of learning and human development. To do so, we start from a human being perspective based on the Historical-Cultural Theory, which understands the subject as a social and relational being, constituted in symbolic and semiotic mediations that provide learning and development. As a methodological design, we are based on the theory of social representations, which as a common sense theory creates and reproduces compatible explanations and facts for everyday practices. The research participants were professionals who work in the health area, public and private, in the municipalities of Pato Branco and Mariópolis - Paraná; four psychologists, three physicians and two speech therapists. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with leading questions and with greater freedom for participants to delve into the subject. The data were organized into categories based on the anchorages identified on the representations of learning and development, in addition to relevant observations for professional performance. From the analysis of the research data, we can identify that the social representations about learning are anchored in the ideas of human experiences, content acquisition and that adequate social and methodological conditions are necessary. Human development, on the other hand, is anchored in the ideas of obtaining learning from/for life, with fundamental importance to social interactions and attention to the relationships between normal development standards and the singularities of each subject. With regard to professional performance, the participants scored the ethical-technical postures in the face of demands, both in a broader view of the phenomena, the limits of the area of knowledge itself and greater criticality about excessive diagnoses. We can conclude that the social representations about learning and development are based on conceptions that start from what is healthy and what is pathological, pathologizing individuals, behaviors and families. The absence of speeches about the political, social and cultural aspects, which also constitute professional phenomena and practices, indicates an individualization of the problems involved in schooling issues. However, critical positions and needs for multidisciplinary approaches from other areas of knowledge indicate tensioning movements of historically biologizing and stigmatizing practices. We conclude by emphasizing the need for professional actions involved with practices that consider the diversity of ways of being and existing, enhancing learning and consequent human development.