ABSTRACT:
This work starts from an approximation between studies carried out in Brazil and Portugal, scenarios in which the fights for recognition of deaf people as participants of a minoritized linguistic community has been the topic of discussions defending a bilingual school. Both contexts are seen from the understanding of school as a place to meet with the difference, with an attentive look into what approximates them and also their singularities, given their historical, political, and social conditions. Interlocutions were held between resistance movements for the maintenance of “School” spaces – Schools for the Deaf (Brazil) and Reference Schools for Bilingual Education for Deaf Students – EREBAS (Portugal) –, as well as the approximation approaching the speeches of deaf students, with the aim of looking at the potentiality of these spaces to enable experiences of being a School. The students – subjects of experience – noticed that the linguistic identification offered by the School for the Deaf/EREBAS is related to access to knowledge, which has been denied – or not guaranteed – in the spaces of the “inclusive school”. The defense of these spaces needs to be linked to the search for a place that gives meaning to the things in the world, that opens up the world and enables experiences that only happen in these spaces of encounter with difference.
KEYWORDS:
Bilingual education; School; Deaf students; Experience; Teaching-learning processes