A construção da subjetividade de um aluno surdo bimodal no contexto da pandemia da COVID-19

Abstract

This doctoral thesis investigates the construction of a bimodal deaf student’s subjectivity during the implementation of Emergency Remote Teaching in educational processes, and the return of traditional classes at Minas Gerais state schools in Brazil, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, drawing on the theoretical-methodological framework of Vygotsky’s Historical-Cultural Psychology in dialogue with Education Ethnographic as a logic for investigation, guided by Discourse Analysis, a dense empirical material was produced during the year of 2021. This material and the situated social context led to the selection of Otto, a bimodal deaf student, as an expressive case, regarding the following criteria: (I) Otto’s acquisition of awareness of himself and others; (II) the mediation of the languages in use: Brazilian Sign Language and Portuguese (the oral language), in Otto’s social and discursive relations with his mother and with education professionals; and, finally, (III) Otto’s construction of concepts, senses, and meanings from educational professional’s pedagogical practices in both distance (videoconferences) and traditional lessons (physically located in the classroom). In this sense, from ACCEL (Social Affect Cognition situated – cultures and languages in use) theoretical-methodological construct, comprehending as a unit all criteria justifying Otto as an expressive case, a smaller analysis unit was identified: oral-gesturing, which is central in Otto’s subjectivity construction. This thesis defends the construction of a subjectivity from Otto’s social relations in family and school environments. Even if Otto understands differences between himself and others, his emerging awareness of himself and of the others seems, at first, confusing, as he lacks the opportunity languages in use would provide so as to build knowledge from his own experiences. He cannot access learning opportunities in collaboration with the other; what is found is an imposition of knowledge by the other, which reveals the student’s subjectivity construction is closely connected with the languages in use: Sign Language and the Oral Language. The model of social inclusion proposed in Minas Gerais state schools is still lacking in the sense of meeting deaf students’ educational and linguistic peculiarities. The influence of theoretical currents and educational practices identified throughout this research made it difficult to build knowledge with the student collaboratively with the other participants by means of instruction-development relation and the unit of analysis (oral-gesturing). Facing this context, when Otto can express himself, as a subject of discourse, he expresses his preference for Sign Language to communicate with people. As he uses gestures, signs, speaks oral phrases, and uses his whole body to communicate and to produce meaning for the instruction-development actions he experiences, he shows he sees himself as a bimodal deaf person.