Deixa que eu fale: a educação de surdos em contextos presencial e online

Abstract

The education of deaf people in formal institutions has become a subject of necessary reflection inside and outside academic spaces, with a view to the search for alignment between theoretical knowledge and what is experienced in practice. This premise guided the development of this doctoral research, which aimed to understand the assessment of four deaf people (adults) regarding their own learning of the Portuguese language (written) in formal in- person and online teaching institutions. To this end, I sought to map and understand the strategies that contributed and the factors that hindered language learning. The methodological path that guided this endeavor was inspired by Netnography and was based on the assumptions of the Case Study, with a qualitative basis. As extracts from the corpus, the answers to the “interview” questions carried out with the four participants and other data from observations and field diary were chosen. Aiming to follow netnographic assumptions, WhastApp was the virtual field chosen for the development of this investigation. In addition to serving as a virtual locus, the messaging application fulfilled the role of a data recording space, as well as an object, as an analysis of its characteristics and functionalities was carried out in contemporary contexts (and) of deafness. This research was included in the fields of Applied Linguistics, New Literacy Studies, Decolonial Studies and, above all, Deaf Studies. The data were read and given meaning based on interpretive research and the same theoretical fields that served as a basis for the development of this study. The interpretative movements revealed that, despite the use of technological devices with the aim of improving the quality of education, human technology, until then represented by the Libras interpreter, still cannot be replaced.