The schooling of the deaf and the blind in Brazil and France: the first institutes of specialized education

• Grant number: 15/03423-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2015
• End date: January 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education
• Principal Investigator: Cássia Geciauskas Sofiato
• Grantee: Roberta Baessa Estimado
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/23439-3 - The schooling of the deaf and the blind in Paris: the first institutes of specialized education, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

This is a bibliographic and documental research, which purpose is to enhance the historiographical discussion about the foundation process and the consolidation of the Public Instruction Institutions for visually and hearing impaired people in Brazil, i. e. the National Education of the Deaf (the former Institute for Deaf-Mutes) and the Benjamin Constant Institute (the former Imperial Institute of the Blind Boys), during the period between the beginning of the Second Empire (1840) and the Proclamation of the Republic (1889).Also, this research aims to discuss to what extent the public institution model for deaf and blind people was similar to or distinct from that adopted by the French institutes, i. e. the National Institute for Deaf-Mutes in Paris and the Blind Boys Institute in Paris, once these were deemed as references in that period for the specialized education institutions for blind and deaf people that were in process of formation.For this purpose, as a methodological procedure, there will be a documental analysis comprising the foundation documentation of the institutes, personal documents that circulated amongst people who were involved with this process as well as legal documents and the bureaucratic state apparatus. The documental corpus in question, faced with the existing bibliography, will enable the examination about how and why these institutions were founded within an imperial political context which favored elites, involving, therefore, the political, social and economical contexts and their distinctive features. (AU)