Educação de surdos e ensino de biologia: um estudo sobre práticas inclusivas na produção de dissertações na pós-graduação brasileira

Abstract

In recent decades, the inclusion of deaf individuals in the Brazilian educational system has become a central topic in discussions about rights, equity, and accessibility. However, ensuring the physical presence of these students in schools does not, by itself, guarantee their effective participation in teaching and learning processes. In the specific context of Biology education, the challenges become even more evident, mainly due to linguistic barriers, the lack of consolidated scientific terminologies in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), and the scarcity of pedagogical practices that address the specific needs of the deaf community. Thus, the general objective of this work is to analyze how academic dissertations address deaf education within Biology teaching, identifying their contributions to the consolidation of inclusive and bilingual pedagogical practices. The specific objectives include mapping the theoretical frameworks, research methods, and main themes addressed in the dissertations, as well as understanding their contributions to building accessible Biology teaching. The study adopts a qualitative, documentary-based approach, grounded in content analysis. The corpus consists of 11 master’s dissertations selected from the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD), based on criteria such as: affiliation with Science Education programs, a direct focus on the intersection between deaf education and Biology, and full availability of the texts. The analysis was carried out in three stages: pre-analysis (organization of material and formulation of hypotheses), material exploration (identification of recording units), and data processing (interpretation and categorization). Four analytical categories emerged: (1) teaching challenges in Biology education for deaf students; (2) communication difficulties and the lack of scientific terminology in Libras; (3) use of visual and bilingual pedagogical strategies; and (4) teacher training, didactic resources, and scientific accessibility. The results highlight structural difficulties in Biology education for deaf students, such as the lack of specific signs in Libras for scientific terms, the scarcity of adequate teaching materials, and insufficient teacher training. On the other hand, promising practices were identified, including the use of bilingual media, assistive technologies, Libras glossaries, models, videos, and collaborative work among teachers, interpreters, and the deaf community. The corpus offers significant contributions to the field of inclusive education, which dissertations analyzed demonstrate that there is still a long way to go in consolidating truly bilingual and inclusive pedagogical practices in Biology teaching.