Deafness is today understood as a difference in human experience - distanced from traditional conceptions of disability and disability - which is characterized by the impossibility of using hearing to process information, and which is at the origin of an identity group defined by the use of a system linguistic of a visual-motor nature – sign language (Silva & Cordula, 2017). Despite constituting a difference limited, in ontological terms, to a sensory modality, the deaf community still encounters obstacles of a linguistic and attitudinal nature to their participation in different domains of life (Singleton & Tittle, 2000). Participation in the educational context of their children is one of the areas where the most disabling obstacles can be expected, firstly due to the lack of mechanisms that guarantee the support of a sign language interpreter translator in parent-school communication (Bezerra & Mateus, 2017 ) . These restrictions experienced by deaf parents have remained silent, both in the political and practical field - with the scope of interpreters' intervention in a school context being explored and regulated only within the framework of bilingual education aimed at deaf students - and in investigative terms, where its analysis has been limited to the phenomenon of intermediation of languages ​​and cultures carried out by children (e.g., Moroe & Andrade, 2018).

Embodying fundamental values ​​that aim at the right to access and deliberate about the school life of their children and the reaffirmation of the importance of Libras interpretation services, this project aims to: (i) portray the involvement of deaf parents in their children's school life, evaluating how the condition of deafness interferes with the exercise of the right and duty to participate in school governance and in decision-making regarding its students, and (ii) identify and mobilize aspects that facilitate family-school relational dynamics, at the level of skills, strategies and supports to be used by parents and teachers. This project will therefore integrate two phases of study: (i) a first of a descriptive nature that will situate, through focus groups and a questionnaire, the involvement of deaf parents in their children's school life, with the identification of influential variables ; (ii) and a second phase of an interventional nature, which will aim to prepare a manual of good practices and implement a training plan with an assessment of its impact on parent-school relational dynamics.

Referência do projeto: inED/2019/7