Deaf community education: plurilingualism, literacies, and language teaching

Abstract

: In Uruguay, an educational study was conducted between 2017 and 2019 under the National Administration of Public Education (ANEP) —the governing body for nationwide educational policies in Uruguay— to establish general guidelines on the linguistic-discursive development of hearing and Deaf students in Primary and Secondary Education, across four age groups: 6–8, 9–11, 12–14, and 15–17 years old. The findings were published in the official document: “Development of Cultural Thinking and its Mediations. Linguistic-Discursive Domain. Learning Progressions”. The aim of this study is to examine this document, seeking, on one hand, to uncover the underlying conceptions of language, discourse, Deaf community, literate culture, and language technologies; and on the other, to identify its distinctions from the hegemonic bilingual model. A hermeneutic methodology for documentary analysis will be employed.  The analyzed document adopts a plurilingual perspective, both in its conception of linguistic repertoire and in the role assigned to Uruguayan Sign Language (Lengua de Señas Uruguaya, LSU) in education. Furthermore, it argues that video-recorded LSU productions are the natural form of literate text creation for the Deaf community and that this should be incorporated into educational approaches.  In conclusion, the document’s plurilingual framework and its understanding of literacy present a disruptive perspective compared to Uruguay’s hegemonic bilingual education model for the Deaf community.