Social Constructions of Deafness: Examining Deaf Languacultures in Education

Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION The journeys that I have made throughout my life are unique in some ways, but as I meet and read more about other deaf1 people, I have found that many of our journeys have intersected at one point or another. Including me, more than 95% of deaf children are born to hearing parents Kluwin, Moores, & Gaustad 1992; Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002). Many of us start with an identity from a distinct culture, but over time, identity shifts as we become more aware of another culture—a culture that each of us has embraced quite differently (Glickman, 1993, 1996). Some of us shift identities from deaf families with a strong deaf culture into the mainstreaming world with peers from a different culture, while others grow up as the only deaf person in a family not knowing any sign language to enrolling in Gallaudet University, a university known for its use of sign language (Padden & Humphries, 2005). Others attempt to decolonize their internal oppression as a deaf person with a deficit and establish a new identify as a person with a celebrated gift, which leads to the accumulation of their true deafhood (Ladd, 2003). Numerous people become situated on the margins and/or the borderlands between the hearing and deaf cultures, and they do not feel fully welcome in either culture (Brueggemann, 2010; Valente, 2010). As I situate myself to uncover the ways that my journeys intersect with others, I use my positionality as reflective discourse (and opportunity) to delineate my identity and 1. For this book, the designation of d or D is not the main focus, and the word deaf will be used to denote an all-encompassing population immersed in deaf-specific educational programs. Constructions of d/D are highly socially negotiable, and the origins of d/D have taken on a political context; these discussions are explicated in Chapter 2. 2 INTRODUCTION find interconnections with other deaf individuals’ positions that take on a negotiated personal and often private identity of deafness.2 Deaf individuals simultaneously acquire a social identity (or role) that is assigned to them and one that corresponds with how they want to be portrayed (both intentionally and unintentionally) to the rest of the world. As with identity, ideas and definitions of deafness are personally and socially complicated and deeply contested, including the constraints over what ought to be normal, especially for a child (Breivik, 2005; Brueggemann, 2010; Ladd, 2003; Lane, 1999; Padden & Ramsey, 1998; Reagan, 2002). These multiple identities and definitions can add up to quite a lot of baggage for individuals. In the social view, I have depreciated my own identity as a deaf person and have often positioned my social identity as a deviant deaf individual while, at other times, I have positioned my deafness as a unique weapon and gift that elevates me to a better status than my hearing peers. One of the many checkpoints that significantly affected my life was the realm of education, specifically, my own experiences as a deaf student. Incidentally, as a researcher and educator, I have often revisited my past and have come to respect the importance of connecting my experiences (emic) to academic research on deafness (etic) to make sense of the multidimensional aspects of my negotiated identities and positionalities. These emic data such as my experiences make explicit translation possible to the larger etic frameworks. To be sure, most etic constructions of deafness are rooted in deviance and are seen as “essentially a medical condition” (Reagan, 2002, p. 45), mainly because dominant perceptions of deafness create a one-sided etic framework that does not celebrate differences, diversity of language, culture, and positive constructions of deafness. The goal of this book is to provide an alternative perspective by which deafness can be seen in a paradigm that is different from deviant and/or deficient. To be sure, there have been countless books that have taken on 2. I am aware that by using the term deafness, I may be placing it in a traditional “medical” category that has often been used (and often abused) throughout history . It is the goal of this book to take that term back from the medical framework and move it to a constructive framework in which -ness means the state of being. This book uses a holistic approach to study the different ways of being deaf, including not only how it has been framed within the medical model but also how it has been viewed through...