Turning the Tide: Making Life Better for Deaf and Hard of Hearing School Children

Foreword

Foreword Turning the Tide is a timely and much needed addition to the field of educating deaf and hard of hearing children. Personal narratives told by deaf and hard of hearing adults offer us powerful insights into the experiences of childhood, and in particular, into the nature of education. In this text, Gina Oliva and Linda Lytle have delivered a highly readable account of their research that sought to uncover the perspectives of people who have lived the experience of “inclusive” education over the past 30 years in the United States. From these narratives, readers—whether parent, educator, interpreter, or administrator— can discover the layers of meaning that adults attach to their educational experiences, and by doing so, examine what works well and what does not work well in the current approach to education for deaf and hard of hearing children. As an educator and an interpreter, I appreciate the work conducted by Oliva and Lytle in this crucial area and believe this book makes an important contribution to our field. Their findings mirror what my own research with Deaf children has shown, highlighting the very stark realities of an education that is too often academically inadequate and most often socially isolating, leading to serious challenges that can persist throughout life. Oliva and Lytle have countered the existing educational literature and movements that tout an “inclusive” education for all, by bringing forward the voices and experiences of those who have lived it as students every day. If ix x Foreword schools are to respond sensibly to the needs of deaf and hard of hearing children, the perspectives of those who have lived the experience must be taken into account. I was particularly drawn to the quotes of former students whose passionate words demonstrate how school can be a very lonely experience for many deaf and hard of hearing students as they struggle to find a peer group that can accept them and with which they can learn to communicate effectively. These themes are consistent with my own studies in a Canadian context, and they are part of a common international narrative about school experiences . In other words, the experiences of Oliva and Lytle’s American subjects have mirrored reports from deaf and hard of hearing individuals from all over the world. The authors help us to see what it means to experience a mediated education via a signed language interpreter. The stories captured in these pages characterize the struggles that deaf and hard of hearing students face daily when working with interpreters who may or may not be able to represent the content and interactional demands of the classroom. Oliva and Lytle expose myths of working with an interpreter, as well as the problems of creating friendships with other children when that has to be first mediated by another adult. One might be tempted to say these reported experiences are local phenomena, or are no longer representative of the current educational system. However, at each international conference I attend on education, these themes continue to play out as current researchers share their findings. As well, organizations such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) continue to lobby for legislation that supports meaningful education using signed languages, pointing to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (UNCRPD) as one mechanism by which countries can improve education for deaf children. This book highlights and reinforces the global movement for educational reforms that will serve deaf children effectively, while supporting their linguistic human rights. Educators and interpreters must question the premise behind using an interpreter for children who have not yet developed language fluency, as well as question the lack of criteria for placing a student in a mainstream Foreword xi environment. This book illustrates the assumption made by educators and administrators about school processes that involving interpreters and deaf children may result in the child having a very isolating experience in the mainstream. One of the important issues explored in the book is social and/or relational bullying as an extension of what many of the participants describe as being made to feel invisible. This topic has had very little attention in the body of literature that centers on Deaf education, and I hope this will lead to further research and crucial conversations among students, parents, teachers, and administrators about how to create safe and nurturing learning spaces for deaf children. The theme “being in...