Adaptações curriculares na educação infantil: desafios das práticas docentes no contexto da educação especial inclusiva em uma escola municipal em Araguatins – TO

Abstract

Inclusive Education requires transformations in school pedagogical practices, and Curricular Adaptations emerge as an indispensable condition for students who are the target audience of Special Education to fully participate in teaching and learning processes. This research investigates the challenges faced by early childhood education teachers at a municipal school in Araguatins, Tocantins, Brazil, in implementing Curricular Adaptations within Inclusive Special Education. Although Brazilian legal frameworks — from the Federal Constitution of 1988, to Law No. 13,146/2015, the National Policy on Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education (2008), Decree No. 12,686/2025, Decree No. 12,773/2025, and MEC Ordinance No. 421/2026 — guarantee the right to education in mainstream schools, gaps persist between what is legally prescribed and what is effectively implemented in everyday school life. The guiding question is: How do teachers address the challenges related to the implementation of Curricular Adaptations in this context? The general objective is to analyze how teachers address the challenges related to the implementation of Curricular Adaptations within the context of Inclusive Special Education in an early childhood education school in Araguatins, Tocantins, Brazil. This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach, involving five classroom teachers. Data were produced through systematic observation and four focus group sessions, which simultaneously constituted a space for in-service professional development, and were analyzed according to Bardin (2016), based on the theoretical contributions of Capellini (2018), Carvalho (2008; 2019), Mantoan (2003; 2015), Sacristán (2013), Minetto (2021), and Ramos (2023). The results reveal homogeneous planning; teachers' technical insecurity due to the lack of continuing professional development; a shortage of adapted resources and the absence of Multifunctional Resource Rooms; and adaptations carried out in an emergency and isolated manner. The focus group sessions enabled the collective development of inclusive strategies and in-service professional development, demonstrating that collaborative dialogue is a promising pathway toward inclusion. As a technical-educational product, the Pedagogical Guide for Curricular Adaptations in Early Childhood Education was developed, organized into four dimensions: content, methodology, materials and resources, and assessment, serving as a support instrument for inclusive teaching praxis.