ABSTRACT:
Various researchers have recently been conducted on the discussion about the analysis of scientific production in the area of Brazilian Special Education ("SE") as their primary object of study. However, studies on the characteristics and trends of the theses on SE developed at Education Graduate Programs ("EGP") in São Paulo from 1985 until 2009 are still scarce, if broader contexts are considered. Thus, in an analytical and synthetic exercise over documental and bibliographical sources, and supported by registration forms, we have created a database (Caracter). This database helped us to identify those involved in the education of Doctors of Philosophy in SE at EGPs in São Paulo (advisors, programs, institutions, etc.); the financially supported theses and their respective funding agencies; the most privileged research subjects; the target populations of such studies; their theoretical foundation; the research resources that were used in them; their methodologies; and their epistemological approaches. In summary, the results obtained in this survey and the information systematized throughout its development have shown that the theses in SE developed at EGPs in São Paulo are in progress, which may be seen with both optimism and cautiousness: optimistically as the area is increasingly coming closer to the problems Brazilian school education faces, and with caution because of the prevalence on descriptive and research-action studies, which seem to indicate, respectively, dispersion and not necessarily the production of novelties, and some sort of uncritical adhesion to the concepts of inclusion and school of the educational policies carried out in Brazil.
KEYWORDS:
Special Education; Inclusive Education; Knowledge Production; Graduate Studies