Teaching Mathematics in an Inclusive Context: A Challenge for the Educational Interpreter in Libras

Abstract

This work is focused on the sign language educational interpreter. It investigates the beliefs of educational Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) interpreters, based on their professional experience, about what is fundamental and indispensable to include in the interpretation of mathematics classes for deaf students in regular classrooms, as well as the main difficulties they find in performing this task. This research is also aimed at investigating how the process of interpretation in mathematics takes place. The relevance of the work can be proven, among other aspects, by the demand of educators in general, who have been receiving deaf students in their classrooms. On the one hand, there are the teachers who are not prepared to deal with these students. On the other hand, there are the interpreters who, although knowing how to communicate with the deaf, are not always familiar with the content that they need to translate. Undoubtedly, in the context of the deaf population, the interpreter can play a fundamental role in reducing the distance between the teacher and the deaf students, and between these students and their colleagues. We will describe a part of the research in which an interview was conducted with an educational interpreter. We will analyze it, keeping in mind the central focuses linked to our aims, hoping to explore some questions regarding this character in the scope of the education of the deaf.