The aim of this study was to analyse evidence of development and learning possibilities of a first-grade student with special educational needs, who presented intellectual disability, and was enrolled in a regular school. It was based on the historical-cultural perspective of human development proposed by Vigotski, mainly on the author's ideas regarding the dialectic relations between human functioning and social processes and, especially, on his studies about people with disabilities. The underlying methodological principles were based on historical-cultural orientation, i.e., the attempt to understand developmental processes. The study was carried out at a municipal preschool and elementary school in a rural town in the state of São Paulo. Classroom situations were filmed between November 2009 and November 2010, when the school year closed. Data were carefully transcribed, in order to reveal signs of inter-subjective relations and production conditions of events that were unfolding. The analysed data revealed that the student with special educational needs demonstrated emerging learning abilities and access to knowledge that were linked to the dynamics of meaning that emerged in the classroom. Based on the analysis, it is possible to state that concrete learning relations occur when meaningful teaching relations are established - something that needs to be understood considering the possibilities of meaningful mediation set in motion within relationships between the subjects.
Special Education; Historical-Cultural Theory; Inclusive Education; Teaching Relationships