Representaciones sociales sobre el autismo en un grupo de docentes de primaria del colegio Luis Madina de Cali

Abstract

The present project of degree proposes as a general objective to describe the social representations manifested by a group of primary teachers of the Luis Madina School of Cali on the discrimination of children with autistic diagnosis. For its respective development it had as a reference framework leading authors such as: Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Émile Durkheim, Denise Jodelet, Serge Moscovici, Jean-Claude Abric, Leo Kanner, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Simon Baron -Cohen, Bruno Bettelheim and Gordon Allport. Regarding the methodology, a descriptive study was conducted under the qualitative perspective, for which a semi-structured interview and a focus group interview were built as instruments, with the objective of investigating categories such as conceptions, practices and images. In this sense, the analysis units were 6 primary school teachers from Luis Madina School, to whom the aforementioned instruments were applied. Among the results it was found that teachers have a medical-psychiatrist conception of autism and state that their origin is due to biological and psychological causes. Also, they state guiding their action under educational practices based on difference and educational practices based on inclusion in work with autistic children. Finally, they refer to images of normality - abnormality, placing autism outside of normality, an aspect that fosters educational problems such as access to education in regular institutions and rejection or bullying by peers towards children with autism, thus causing exclusion or discrimination of this population.