Blind steps: following paths and stories of the blind in the city

• Grant number: 15/26214-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Maria Inês Bacellar Monteiro
• Grantee: Endrius Robert Lopes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas. Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba (UNIMEP). Instituto Educacional Piracicabano. Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic survey, this study aims at understanding the research process of a blind researcher during her fieldwork, developed as a requirement for her Ph.D. in Education. How does the researcher feel, relate, and describe her field of study without seeing it, or not seeing it as most researchers do? This question arose from a monitoring experience of a blind researcher who develops a study on literacy teaching to blind students. The city and the school, the latter being the researcher's chosen field of study, have many obstacles to blind people, as they are spaces designed for those who are able to see. The researcher's unique way of perceiving the paths and the school relations drew our attention. During the study, the researcher will be monitored for one year on her way to school and in the activities she develops there. Her observations and comments will also be part of the analysis. Whereas the world is usually signified by seeing subjects and events are known mainly through vision, we ask: How does a congenital blind researcher know the paths and construct the image of her object of study? The study may contribute to the understanding of new possibilities of forming images, signifying the world, and researching.