Education for deaf people in Brazil and Portugal: linguistic recognition, bilingualism, and teacher education policies

Abstract

This article analyses deaf education policies produced in Brazil and Portugal in the last few years with regard to recognition of gesture/sign languages, propositions for deaf education, and the education of teachers to work with deaf students. In this respect, we analyze the processes of production of specific legislation and how that legislation relates with other documents, as well as processes for implementing/interpreting such legislation. In our analysis, we highlight the Brazilian Federal Decree 5,626/2005 and the Portuguese Decree-Law 3 of January 7, 2008. In many aspects, Portugal and Brazil show similarities, such as the non-officialized recognition of both countries’ gesture/sign languages (LGP and Libras, respectively). However, the two countries differ in other aspects, such as the European Union’s more explicit influence on Portugal’s political decisions, as well as the EU’s influence on decisions and actions of the deaf associative movement in that country. We conclude that deaf education policies in both countries are the result of negotiations between, on the one hand, struggles waged by deaf movements, and, on the other, the emergence of inclusive policies. It becomes evident that the struggle of deaf movements has had to negotiate its meanings in order to be incorporated as public policies, and that occurred in a context of implementation of inclusive policies.