English interview, Juliene Madureira Ferreira

Juliene Madureira Ferreira, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Tampere (Finland), came to the INSHEA with an Erasmus mobility exchange in order to continue a collaboration already started with Esther Atlan and Sabine Zorn, ATER at the INSHEA. This collaboration focuses on the analysis of social interactions in the school context involving learners with disabilities (intellectual disability, PIMD and autism spectrum disorder) and aims to develop methodological and theoritical common tools as well as to develop a network of researchers interested in the topic. During her stay, Juliene has registered a video conference about the embodiment in collaborative interactions entitled « Video analysis : what is that we are looking for? ». 

From Brasil, she started her career as a researcher and teacher in 2010 in the Federal University of Uberlândia in Brazil. During that time, she developed different projects in the field of inclusive and special education, becoming deeply involved with teacher training in this field and, consequently, decided to pursue her doctoral studies (Doctoral Programme in Psychology, University of Sao Paulo) with the topic of peer interaction and the development of children with intellectual disability. She talks to us about her career path as a researcher, her collaboration with the INSHEA and her mobility exchange. 

A career path between Brasil and Finland. 

 During my doctoral studies, I took a one-year exchange period in Finland (at the faculty of Education of Tampere University), which provided me the opportunity to reflect upon the educational impacts of my work and inspired me to address my research through an educational perspective dialoguing with Finnish concepts and practices of inclusive education. Thus, I applied for another doctoral degree in Finland. At the end of 2018, I had defended both of my Ph.D. and started to work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (tenure-track) for the Faculty of Education and Culture of Tampere University. Since then, I have developed different research projects, not focusing solely on inclusive education but also on children's perspectives and perceptions of learning in school - a project that was carried out in partnership with the Federal University of Uberlândia in Brazil; and, children's sociability in institutional contexts - developed in partnership with colleagues from the Federal University of Espírito Santo and University of Brasilia, Brazil.  Therefore, my research so far has transited between different fields, developmental psychology, educational psychology, and inclusive education, always having as main core the phenomenon of peer interactions and children's perspectives.

Currently, I've been focusing on peer interactions in situations of collaboration. This latest project involves partners from Brazil and Chile, and the main idea is to explore the embodiment in collaborative interactions. Part of the view I take is about what happens in collaborative interactions between asymmetrical peers (between children with disabilities and children without disabilities). The results should be ready this year. This combination of different topics and interests reflects a lot of my personality I guess, I am a curious person. 

Find out her video conference (english without subtitles) : « Video analysis, what is that we are looking for? ». 

An obvious collaboration with the INSHEA. 

I met Sabine Zorn and Esther Atlan in EARLI conference (European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction) in 2017 and realized that our research interests and methodological approach were very similar. From that point on we started collaborating - mainly on discussing methodological issues in the research involving children with disabilities. During that process (2018) I came to know more in-depth about the research in INSHEA, and I must say that the up-to-date research topics addressed by INSHEA's research teams, as well as, the experience of offering a comprehensive education/training for special education teachers, make the collaboration with the institute relevant. INSHEA has a solid history and substantial background in conducting multidisciplinary research in the field; it also works in collaboration with different and many other institutes, universities and academic partners that equally urge to improve society through inclusive practices. Therefore, it is rather easy to collaborate, the doors are open and the member of this community are experienced professionals. 

For quite some time, Sabine, Esther and I have been planning to strengthen our collaboration and systematize our qualitative method for using video data and analysis in special/inclusive education research and practice. This year we decided that this project will get out of our heads and into the paper, and we decided to start by working intensively together and presenting our ideas to each other's academic environment through mobility exchange. So, here I am. In April Sabine will pay us a visit to Tampere University, and I am sure it will be as great as this was for me.