A escolarização de surdos adultos e idosos de uma comunidade religiosa: narrativas da realidade

Abstract

The education of deaf adults and the elderly in Brazil constitutes a field permeated by historical, social, and educational challenges, marked by processes of exclusion and the precariousness of the schooling experiences lived by many of these individuals throughout their life trajectories. For decades, the absence of effective educational policies and the predominance of conceptions that disregarded the linguistic and cultural specificities of the deaf population contributed to late or limited access to formal education. In this context, this research aims to analyze the narratives of deaf adults and the elderly belonging to a religious community located in the interior of the state of Paraná, seeking to understand how their academic trajectories highlight the weaknesses of inclusive education policies and what impacts these gaps produce on their personal, social, and cultural lives. This is a qualitative research, developed from an autobiographical narrative approach, which recognizes the experiences and memories of the participants as legitimate sources of knowledge production. The data were produced through narrative interviews conducted with six deaf individuals, aged between 20 and 70 years, who present different deaf identities and levels of schooling. The analysis of the narratives was based on theoretical frameworks such as Bourdieu (2003), who discusses the reproduction of inequalities in the educational field, and on authors who problematize the education of deaf people and inclusion policies, such as Caldas (2021), Strobel (2008), Skliar (2016), and Lodi (2013). The results indicate that, although inclusive education policies have advanced in recent decades, they remain distant from the realities experienced by these individuals, highlighting linguistic, cultural, and structural barriers that have impacted their educational trajectories, often marked by interruptions, late schooling, or lack of access to Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) in the educational context. The narratives also reveal the importance of community spaces and spaces for interaction among deaf people for the construction of identities, for strengthening communication in Libras, and for expanding possibilities for social participation. Thus, this research contributes to broadening the debate on the education of deaf adults and the elderly, highlighting the need for educational policies that are more sensitive to the linguistic and cultural specificities of this population, as well as for the valorization of Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) as an instrument of citizenship, social inclusion, and cultural affirmation.