The process of pathologizing learning difficulties is still a frequent practice in the Brazilian
educational system. That, in turn, teachers use this phenomenon to diagnose the student with
some kind of disorder, in which this corroborates the non-learning of the individual. In this
sense, the discourse of medicalization of education is responsible for referring the student to
the health system, which is justified by the medical expression of the student's learning
difficulties. Because most of the causes of non-learning of the subject occur due to questions of
pedagogical methods used by teachers. Therefore, we carried out a bibliographical investigation
with the aim of analyzing the process of pathologization of learning difficulties and its relations
with the pedagogical trends that influence the process of pathologization and medicalization in
Brazilian education, as well as defining the concepts of medicalization of education and
pathologization of learning difficulties. After this step, we carried out an investigation into the
pathologization process of learning difficulties today, through the analysis of research published
between 2017 and 2022, in the database of Theses and Dissertations for the Coordination of
Improvement of Higher Education Persons (CAPES ) and on the Google Scholar website. The
analysis of this study was developed in the critical perspective of School Psychology, especially
the theories of Historical-Cultural Psychology and Historical-Critical Pedagogy. Subsidized by
these discussions, the work presents the following research problem: Why are there
pathologizing practices in the contemporary school context, even in the face of criticism about
their use?. Thus, it can be concluded through the analysis of the research that it is necessary for
the educational system to create strategies that induce professionals not to use these processes.
Because, in education, teachers are the main users of practices of
pathologization/medicalization of learning difficulties. That directs the blame for school failure
to biological reductionism, that is, the problems that arise from numerous social, political and
economic issues fall only on the child's individualism. This study is justified by its academic
relevance, since pathologization is present in the contemporary context in which we are
inserted.
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