Intercultural Bilingual Education: parallels between education for the native peoples and education for the Deaf

Abstract

This text aims to propose reflections on bilingual education for the deaf in the Brazilian context in interconnection with bilingual education for original populations of Latin America, especially Bolivia, under the focus of interculturality. The choice of theme has a personal and academic character. Academic because since 2010 we work with bilingual education (Libras/Portuguese), at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Santa Catarina (IFSC) - Palhoça-Bilingual Campus. In this context, the question about what is or how bilingual education for the deaf should be becomes a central anguish that accompanies our professional practice. Personal, because we had the opportunity to personally know some of the intercultural relations of the Andean peoples, living with them in their native region for 45 days at the end of 2014. The stay in Bolivia enabled us to get to know the origins, history, cultural traditions, and interests of the inhabitants descended from the original peoples of Andean America in a more contextualised, albeit insufficient, manner. As Masutti (2007, p. 22) tells us, the desire for investigation arises from the weft of life, from everything that crosses and constitutes us. It is a kind of projection of the unconscious that is elaborated in the enunciation of daily texts and narratives constituted by long plotted threads.