Approach to Inclusion in the Construction of the Concept of Number Developed with a Student with Deafblindness

Abstract

The field of Inclusive Mathematical Education has been expanding its research, with a view to serving everyone, respecting their differences. In this scenario, this article is contextualized based on an investigation carried out in a special school for the deaf, with a student with congenital deafblindness as the subject. The objective here is to describe and analyze five activities developed with the student, referring to one of the mental processes linked to the construction of the concept of number, namely, the process of inclusion. The article presents a contextualization of the research and a summary of deafblindness, with the research developed from a qualitative perspective, developed as a case study and analyzed based on video analysis. As a result, it is highlighted that the student performed some activities with ease, such as placing the objects in their respective scenario. Some activities were performed after trial and error, such as the inclusion of the cubes, but without considering the information of the numbers contained in the objects. Finally, in two activities the student was unable to identify the group that was defined by the images, such as the superheroes, and was unable to understand the group of bottle caps and its subgroups. In these activities, it was noted that the student had difficulty in thinking about the larger group in relation to the smaller groups, an important development process that involves operational classification based on hierarchical inclusions.  It is concluded that more research on deafblindness from the perspective of Inclusive Mathematics Education should be carried out, expanding the discussion on the topic.