MEMORY-REFERENCES OF PROFESSORS FROM UFCG: LEARNING PATHS IN RESEARCH ABOUT THE HISTORY OF SIGN LANGUAGE IN CAMPINA GRANDE (1971-1996)

Abstract

In the following article we trace our paths as professors and researchers in deaf and Libras Education at a public university in the countryside of Paraiba state, the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG). From a retrospective view of three research developed by us, we bring “memory-references” (JOSSO, 2002) in which constitute us as professors, researchers and narrators of this process. The first research, started in 2015 and still on, aims to investigate the historical path of the education of deaf and sign language in the city of Campina Grande (1971-1996). The two other research, which are finished, linked to PIBIC-CNPq-UFCG (2016 and 2017), respectively, focused on the history of Libras in Campina Grande. These research were unfoldments of the first one. We based all the process on (auto)biographic studies on Education. Therefore, this narrating movement that interweaves with life stories of deaf adults allowed us to look at the constitution process of Libras in Campina Grande from three relevant moments for the history of sign language in this city. The first moment was the contact of deaf campinenses, as children, with signs of deaf recifences; the second movement was the opportunity of living among deaf children from the region in institutions for people with deficiency, arising space to the contact among peers; and the third moment was the contact of deaf people from Campina Grande, now adolescents, with deaf people from other regions. The memory-references here narrated contribute to the constitution of the historical legacy of deaf and Libras, and, above all, to our exercise of being-living professors and researchers of deaf and Libras Education.