Possíveis negociações dos discursos curriculares no contexto da educação bilíngue de uma escola de surdos do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

This dissertation was carried out in the Postgraduate Program in Education, in the Research Line of Special Education of the Education Center at the Federal University of Santa Maria. It has involved an exercise of problematization developed from the following guiding question: how do the curriculum discourses of the deaf school operate in relation to the Bilingual Education Policy? Hence, the objectives of this study are both to analyze the way in which the discourses have produced curriculum practices in deaf schools, and to problematize the curriculum practices of the deaf school in relation to the Bilingual Education Policy. In order to carry out the problematization and achieve my objectives, firstly, I considered materials formulated by both the Ministry of Education (MEC) of Brazil and the Brazilian deaf community to analyze the discourses about Deaf Education spread in such materials. Secondly, I analyzed the Pedagogical-Political Project of a deaf school in Santa Maria, as well as interviews with teachers of that school and observations of the school routine, which were recorded in a field journal. To carry out this theoretical-methodological task, I have used Cultural Studies in Education, Deaf Studies and some notions of Michel Foucault’s thought, more especifically, the notions of discourse and power/knowledge relations. By working on the first research objective, I was able to notice a kind of mismatch or disparity between those discourses, and a permanent negotiation between the Brazilian deaf community and the proposals of the Ministry of Education – a negotiation that sometimes is productive and ends up producing gains to deaf subjects, such as the officialization of the Libras Act by means of Decree 5626/2005. Regarding my second objective, I realized that the investigated school focuses its practices on Sign Language teaching and learning, and this language is almost the only means of communication in the school setting. I have also evidenced the permanent presence of the deaf community, as if the school were the place of community strengthening. Furthermore, I have concluded that the investigated school attempts to work with its curriculum in accordance with the bilingual policy, by investing in both Sign Language and a curriculum with specific discplines, addressing issues related to deaf culture, history and identity.