Self-experience of children with disabilities: from a precarious life to the courage of existence

Abstract

The present article aims to present an overview of a doctoral research in Education. The aim of the study was to analyze the experience of the self of two children with disabilities, who are students of two public schools in Belo Horizonte (one child is blind and the other has a physical disability, she is a wheelchair user). This is a research that takes as main reference the proposals of the philosopher Michel Foucault, especially the theoretical and methodological contributions of ethics. To fulfill the proposal of reporting the research, the article presents the most relevant methodological aspects; discusses childhood, disability and inclusion; debates the notions of ethics and experience in Foucault’s work and, finally, analyzes the ethical activity of the children, showing how they build an experience of self. As a conclusion, it tries to show that, although these children are inserted in a school field permeated by discursive and non-discursive practices that try to submit them to situations of normalization and rejection, they undertake an ethical work in favor of freedom. Despite their precarious lives, the children courageously face knowledge and power in order to produce drift lines that enable them to empower and affirm their existences.