FROM SILENCE TO LETTERS: A CENTURY OF TEACHING WRITING TO DEAF STUDENTS IN COLOMBIA (1924–2024)

Abstract

This article examines the pedagogical practices implemented by Colombian teachers within formal education, aimed at teaching writing to deaf students. The historical overview spans from 1924, the year in which the first school for deaf people was founded in Colombia under an oralist approach, to 2024. Methodologically, a documentary review with a historical-hermeneutic orientation was conducted, which included an exploratory reading, the tracing of the categories “deaf” and “education” in pedagogical discourses, and a subsequent exercise of critical interpretation. The findings reveal that, over a century, discourses and educational practices have oscillated between exclusionary paradigms—such as oralism and the medical-pathologizing view—and recognition-oriented approaches, such as bilingual models and inclusive education. However, national statistics report that a significant proportion of deaf students complete their educational trajectories without achieving reading and writing autonomy, due to teaching processes that replicate methodologies designed for hearing students and fail to acknowledge their linguistic particularities. Based on this analysis, the article underscores the urgency of configuring a pedagogical framework, understood as a body of theoretical foundations and guidelines for teaching practices, from which discourses can be interpreted, the linguistic and cultural difference of the deaf community can be recognized, and more inclusive, pertinent, and contextualized didactics can be projected.