This study presents a quantitative-descriptive investigation of researches conducted in Brazil from 2007 to 2011. The search was conducted in the theses abstracts of masters' and doctorate programs in the Theses database at Capes (www.capes.gov.br), by using the keywords: Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) and Deaf people´s education. The intention was to analyze the corpus found in the Theses database and with the following categories: (i) types of research, (ii) number of productions per year, (iii) academic production in each university, (iv) focus of fields per year, (v) themes chosen and amounts per year, (vi) kinds of research and amounts per year, (vii) theoretical reference on deafness and number of quotations per year, (viii) agencies for research funding. We emphasize that during five years 349 studies were presented and there were 281 Master's Theses, 16 Doctoral Theses and 9 works of professional master's. Santa Catarina Federal University was the institution where 32 researches were developed at the time, where the educational field had the biggest number of dissertations, representing 129 of the total amount, and deafs' education was presented as a recurring theme with 30 dissertations. Vygotsky was the author who was quoted in most of the studies. In general, the abstracts present analysis limitations and they pose a challenge to their quality.
deaf people's education; Libras; deafness; research pieces
