Graduates: an overview of the trajectory of graduates in education from the National Institute for the Deaf

This study focuses on the trajectory of graduates from the Instituto Nacional de Educação de Surdos (National Institute for the Education of the Deaf) – INES. It aims at analysing the career development and academic outcomes of students who followed Education degree courses at the INES. One of the objectives of our research was to assess the relationship between these students’ degree courses and graduate follow-up. As a survey tool, we used a bilingual online questionnaire (BSL – Brazilian Sign Language – and Portuguese Language), comprising multiple choice and essay questions, designed for 41 graduates in Education, who obtained their degrees between 2009 and 2016. The majority of the participants were mixed-race women, with no hearing disability, average age of 37, and a monthly income of 3 to 4 minimum wages. The analysed data reveals that more than 90% of the graduates regarded their INES degree courses as good or excellent. In relation to the content of these degree courses, twelve categories were considered rather unsatisfactory, and the most criticised of all was the “curriculum”. Other topics frequently criticised were: the lack of BSL modules in the curriculum, the standard of teaching, lack of modules related to deafness, internship and materials available.