Deficiência e suas representações: propagação da imagem de corpo e seus significados

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to analyse the representations of people with disability being transmitted in some text books of the National Plan of Text Book (PNLD), from the 6th to the 9th grades of elementary education. It is based on the assumption that text books propagate commonsense knowledge about disability and about people with disability. This research finds its theoretical contributions on the studies of Serge Moscovici (1978, 2007), Jodelet (1989), Valla (2006) and Duveen (2007) on the concept and function of social representations and on the different ways to convey these representations by the media. The study also draws on the work of Hall (1997), Goffmann (1990), De Rosa (2005) and Eco (2015) on the role of image in the transmission of ideas, values and behaviors. In the same way, it considers the reflections of Mauss (2003), Le Breton (2007), Stiker (2009), Courtin, Courtine and Vigarello (2009) and Courtine (2011, 2012) on the history of the body and its representations. Other important authors, such as Forquin (1993), Apple (2006) and Silva (1010, 2014), subsidized this study on the discussion about the curriculum. It is a documental analysis, of an exploratory character, and of a quantitative and qualitative nature. The methodological proceedure was based on the Content Analysis of Bardin (1977) and on Bauer and Gaskell (2015),. It uses the IRAMUTEQ software - R Interface for Multidimensional Analysis of Texts and of Questionnaires (RATINAUD, 2009) for statistical analysis of text data. The research identifies corporal elements, the equipments, the activities people with disability are involved with, the spaces in which they are located and the ways they interact with others, as representative of whom they are, of their role in society and of their degree of autonomy. The study also analyses the texts which accompany the imagens. The objective is to reflect on what imagetic and textual elements reveal about people’s views on disability and people with disabilitiy. The images and the texts were cataloged and grouped into categories, and some comparisons were stablished. The results showed the propagation of common-sense knowledge, values, behaviors and stereotypes about people with disability. The most common images showed people with disability in wheelchairs, with a facial expression of happiness and integrated in groups. The analysis of similitude of the texts indicate references to health questions, therapy and limitations of people with disability. It also shows the lack of correspondence between texts and images, what may suggest few intentions in developing a deep analysis of the issue of disability and inclusion of people with disability. The study contributes to enhance discussions on commonsense knowledge that circulates in society about people with disability and to the possible impacts of these knowledges in the construction of future representations.