Academic authorship of the Brazilian Deaf Movement: circulation of knowledge from an Intercultural Collective Project

Abstract

This research discusses the historical role of deaf leaders in social movements, focusing on their educational role in social relations. It begins with an inquiry into the meanings employed by the first seven Brazilian deaf doctors, and activists in deaf movements in the early 21st century from the perspective of the collective articulation of knowledge. Thus, the theme gains strength in the face of the dissolution of subalternizing social representations of deaf people, enabling the visibility of deaf protagonism and authorship due to the systematized knowledge produced, articulated, and shared by intellectual leaders. Therefore, the research proposes to recognize, through the academic authorship of deaf leaders, an intercultural education project as a strategy for transforming social relations between agents and institutions. With a basic and qualitative characteristic, methodologically, a bibliographic review and documentary research were chosen. Through the interpretative reading of the collected data, the theoretical field is approached with critical (inter)cultural studies from Latin America, guided by decolonial thinking. Finally, the research highlights different types of knowledge that converge in learning for hearing people, highlighted by the pioneering group in the doctoral process of engaged intellectuals. Through the articulation of practical, theoretical, technical-instrumental, socio-political, symbolic-cultural, linguistic, and epistemic knowledge, the construction of an intercultural pedagogy based on recognition and solidarity with the deaf by hearing people is verified.