The present paper intends to analyze the issue of school culture, deaf culture and the influence both factors present in the construction of the deaf person's identity within the school context. The aim is to identify relevant aspects that connect, regulate or direct relations within the school and the impact they have in constituting the deaf student's sense of self. Through the study of theoretical parameters that permeate cultures (school and deaf cultures), this paper aims to present parallel sociocultural constructivist suppositions to point out essential characteristics for the constitution of the notion of self. The school context is extremely important to deaf students, the majority of whom come from hearing families. Studies on deaf identity suggest that other deaf individuals are paramount for constructing a healthy identity, since the deaf share a common language system (sign language), inasmuch as interaction between deaf and hearing people does not occur in such a natural fashion.
special education; school culture; deaf culture; identity; Brazilian Sign Language