From the empirical self to the epistemic self

meanings attributed by deaf students to the Bachelor's Degree in Brazilian Sign Language

Abstract

The theoretical notion of Relationship with Knowledge, from Bernard Charlot's anthropological perspective, refers to the relationships that individuals establish with people, objects, situations, thought content, activities, and contexts related to learning and knowledge. This relationship develops in three dimensions: epistemic, social, and identity. This article highlights the epistemic dimension, the meanings attributed by the subject to knowledge in the constitution of their epistemic self. The aim of this study is to analyze the value attributed by deaf students to the Bachelor's Degree in Libras Language, based on what they say they learn and how these learning processes take place. The research, which took a qualitative and exploratory approach, involved nine deaf students from a federal university, whose narratives were obtained using the knowledge balance technique. Three meanings attributed to the course were identified: opportunity for training, work for subsistence, and linguistic self-knowledge; the latter highlighting knowledge as part of personal development and the construction of the knowing subject.