Alice's Self-Image: Childhood, Intellectual Disability, and Mediation from the Perspective of Historical-Cultural Theory

Abstract

This article analyzes the self-image of a student with an intellectual disability, fictitiously named Alice, in light of Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory. The study originates from a qualitative doctoral research project, developed in a municipal public school in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro, based on procedures such as participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. The focus of the investigation is on the interpretation of a self-portrait produced by Alice, understood as a symbolic mediation capable of expressing subjective, social, and cultural aspects of her school experience and her constitution as a subject. Grounded in the assumptions of Vygotsky and his interlocutors, the study shows that drawing, as a symbolic language, mobilizes higher psychological functions and enables the articulation between development and learning. The analysis indicates that Alice's self-image cannot be reduced to an individual expression, but must be understood as a product of social and cultural mediations, traversed by representations of disability. It is concluded that mediated and intentional pedagogical practices are fundamental to promoting the identity formation of the human being in the process of constructing their identity and subjectivity, as well as the way they see and perceive themselves in the school (micro) and social (macro) environment.