The Participation of Deaf Students in Higher Education in Brazil: Ethnographic Insights Into the Communicative Processes Involved in Navigating Academic Literacies

Abstract

In this paper, I analyse bilingual interactional practices in higher education in Brazil, focusing on Deaf students and, in particular, on their participation in academic literacy practices with the assistance of Sign Language interpreters. The paper draws on a study conducted within the undergraduate Linguistics program at a public university. As part of this study, I engaged in participant observation and interactional analysis in a classroom where three Deaf students were enrolled. The study was conducted within a theoretical and methodological framework consisting of ethnography as a logic of inquiry, recent writings on bilingual education for Deaf students, and literacy as a social practice (New Literacy Studies). My analysis of the specific challenges faced by these students in higher education is also situated within the wider educational policy context in Brazil and related to recent policy-making regarding democratising access to higher education for minoritized groups.