Bilingual education for deaf children: deafness as an experience and childhood as a potency

Abstract

This article aims to discuss about bilingual education for deaf children through the challenge of: outlook deafness as an experience and childhood as a potency. Bilingual education centers the discussions regarding how to deal with the deaf people cultural and linguistic differences, serving as a fighting banner for the Brazilian deaf community, therefore, meriting special attention. The research embodies a case study that took place at the Municipal Center of Child Education located in Vitória, a city in the state of Espírito Santo. The Center, considered as a leading school of bilingual education for the deaf, integrates a bigger project carried in the city. Thus, we understand the educational language and, accordingly, the bilingual education, as a wish to come true for the deaf children enrolled in Nursery Education. We highlight that the bilingual politic represents more than just the use of two languages. It must ensure to deaf students, educational spaces that evoke thinking and spur their capabilities. It is must also contemplate an education politic that respects the linguistic uniqueness, revealed upon the collectivity that emerges from the relation among the deaf. In other words, it is necessary to provide spaces that contribute for the deaf children to be in touch with their linguistic peers.