The discourse on public policies related to the education of people with visual impairments in the first Brazilian Magazine for the Blind (RBC)

Abstract

The present study was dedicated to analyzing the discourse of the first copy, published in 1942, of the Brazilian Magazine for the Blind, a Braille periodical from the Benjamin Constant Institute. Upon initial reading, it was noticed that the publication presents content about public policies of the time, related to the education of people with visual impairments, the effects of which will be observed decades ahead. From then on, the aim was to reconstruct, through the discursive marks present in the periodical, the memory of current policies, reflected in the magazine’s pages. There were three public policies used in the observation, produced by the Federal Executive Branch for application nationwide: National Policy on Special Education (Brasil, 1994); National Policy on Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education (Brasil, 2008); and National Policy on Special Education: Equitable, Inclusive and with Lifelong Learning (Brasil, 2020). The choice of these policies occurred due to their scope and influence on the development of other policies in other federative entities. The tool used to investigate the corpus was French discourse analysis, whose main exponent is the French philosopher Michel Pêcheux (1938 – 1983). The choice of analysis methodology occurred considering that discourse, for Pêcheux, is constructed in society, in the process of struggle between antagonistic social classes, with their different ideologies. The magazine’s analysis revealed that the content on political actions linked to the theme of visual impairment, in the 1940s, brings with it discursive marks of different public policies (welfare, specialized education, inclusive education), which intertwine or clash, producing effects, namely, the realization of the rights of people with visual impairments as citizens. It´s important to note that this process continues today, reflected in the public policies of 1994, 2008 and 2020. This article presents itself as an outcome of the research carried out during the master’s degree, completed in 2020, of the Postgraduate Program in Social Memory at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro.