Psicologia escolar, terapia cognitiva comportamental e a formação continuada de professores para a ressignificação da atuação no contexto da educação inclusiva

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the contributions of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in redefining teachers’ beliefs about inclusive education. It is assumed that beliefs are cognitive schemes that shape teachers’ perception, interpretation, and practices when faced with the challenges of inclusion. CBT offers theoretical and methodological tools that allow for the identification, evaluation, and restructuring of automatic thoughts, intermediate beliefs, and dysfunctional core beliefs, which often act as attitudinal barriers in the school context. The literature in the area shows that many teachers are still anchored in traditional models, centered on the medical paradigm and the logic of disability, which tend to associate learning difficulties exclusively with the student’s limitations, disregarding the pedagogical, social, and cultural dimensions that permeate the educational process. Such conceptions, when not problematized, reinforce exclusionary practices, resistance to diversity, and the maintenance of attitudinal barriers that compromise the right to quality education for all. On the other hand, when teachers develop inclusive beliefs, recognizing diversity as a value and not as a problem, they become capable of redefining their practices, seeking continued training, and building pedagogical strategies that promote the participation and learning of all students, including those with disabilities. Given this context, understanding teachers’ conceptions and beliefs about inclusive education becomes essential to support training processes that bring about significant changes in pedagogical practice and school culture. Thus, this work, organized in the alternative thesis format, has as its central axis the articulation between the challenges, possibilities, and effects of teachers’ beliefs in the process of implementing inclusive education in the school context, as well as the contribution of School Psychology — especially from the perspective of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — in redefining these beliefs. This axis not only connects the chapters that make up the thesis, but also reflects an urgent theoretical-practical concern in view of the contemporary demands of education, in which, despite legislative and regulatory advances, inclusive practices still encounter significant barriers in the attitudinal, institutional and cognitive planes of the subjects who build the school. The study shows that it is possible to promote the modification of limiting thoughts, strengthening teacher self-efficacy and encouraging more collaborative, empathetic and inclusive pedagogical practices, through the application of interventions based on techniques such as psychoeducation, Socratic questioning and cognitive restructuring. The results indicate that the work of School Psychology, based on CBT, impacts not only the transformation of individual teachers' beliefs, but also the institutional culture, promoting more inclusive and diversity-sensitive school environments.