Quartararo begins by describing how Abbé de l’Epée promoted the education of deaf students with sign language, an approach supported by the French revolutionary government, which formally established the Paris Deaf Institute in 1791. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the school’s hearing director, Roch-Ambroise-Auguste Bébian, advocated the use of sign language even while the institute’s physician Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard worked to discredit signing.

Deaf Lives in Contrast: Two Women’s Stories might seem to bring together polar opposites in the broad range of deaf experience. Yet, as these narratives unfold, the reader will recognize that common threads run through them despite their different circumstances. Mary V. Rivers, who came from a “dirt poor” Cajun family in Louisiana, was only 17 when she married Bruce Rivers, a member of the U.S. Air Force during World War II. She bore three children in quick succession, all boys, and traveled with them to Europe with her husband. When her third son Clay was nearly two, however, she learned that he was deaf. From that time on, she devoted her life to securing a good education for Clay. Dvora Shurman’s parents, deaf Jewish immigrants from Russia, met in Chicago after World War I. Both were educated orally, declaring “I am not born deaf. Signing only for born-deaf.” They did sign, but they also wanted hearing children, stemming from their own sense of devaluation. Shurman lived a dual life in the deaf and hearing worlds. She saw herself as her deaf parents’ ears, their voice to the hearing world, and as sharing with her mother the task of being mother. The resonating theme that echoes with both of these women centers on their resentment of the treatment received by their deaf loved ones. Early in her life, Shurman adopted a slogan with her father, “‘It’s Not Fair,’ to rebel against the shaming, the demeaning, our family suffered.” After years of struggling for her son, Rivers asserts that “deaf people have a right to prove themselves as first class citizens.” Their uncommon stories reveal that they share more in common, a belief in equal rights for all, deaf and hearing.

Faire de la diversité une force constructive qui contribue à la compréhension mutuelle entre individus et entre groupes constitue actuellement un discours central des sociétés occidentales. En éducation, ce discours est repérable dans la pratique inclusive. Ce mouvement en faveur de l’inclusion de tous les élèves, quels que soient leurs attributs individuels ou caractéristiques personnelles, épouse cependant différents contours, génère différentes significations selon les contextes où il prend racine et évolue. Cet ouvrage examine la mise en oeuvre de ces discours en pratique. Les auteurs présentent, à partir d’une approche qualitative et d’outils d’enquête communs, des « écoles en mouvement », des écoles qui se veulent inclusives au Canada, en France, en Grande-Bretagne et en Italie, présentant une diversité de situations et d’exemples tirés de ces contextes divers. Cet ouvrage diffère des manuels qui présentent généralement ce que l’on doit faire et opte pour une investigation empirique qui permet de regarder ce que veut concrètement dire l’inclusion en milieu scolaire.

Traditionally, deaf education has been treated as the domain of special educators who strive to overcome the difficulties associated with hearing loss. Recently, the sociocultural view of deafness has prompted research and academic study of Deaf culture, sign language linguistics, and bilingual education. Linda Komesaroff exposes the power of the entrenched dominant groups and their influence on the politics of educational policy and practice in Disabling Pedagogy: Power, Politics, and Deaf Education. Komesaroff suggests a reconstruction of deaf education based on educational and social theory. First, she establishes a deep and situated account of deaf education in Australia through interviews with teachers, Deaf leaders, parents, and other stakeholders. Komesaroff then documents a shift to bilingual education by one school community as part of her ethnographic study of language practices in deaf education. She also reports on the experiences of deaf students in teacher education. Her study provides an analytical account of legal cases and discrimination suits brought by deaf parents for lack of access to native sign language in the classroom. Komesaroff confronts the issue of cochlear implantation, locating it within the broader context of gene technology and bioethics, and advocates linguistic rights and self-determination for deaf people on the international level. Disabling Pedagogy concludes with a realistic assessment of the political challenge and the potential of the “Deaf Resurgence” movement to enfranchise deaf people in the politics of their own education.

The 19th International Congress on Education of the Deaf (ICED) in 2000, held in Sydney, Australia, brought together 1,067 teachers, administrators and researchers from 46 countries to address an extremely wide selection of topics. Experts from around the world discussed inclusion of deaf students in regular educational environments, literacy, audiology, auditory development and listening programs, hearing aids, programming for children with cochlear implants, signed communication in education, bilingual education, early intervention (including the rapidly emerging area of newborn hearing screening), education in developing countries, deaf students with multiple disabilities, and deaf students in postsecondary school education. The 19 chapters of Educating Deaf Students: Global Perspectives present a select cross-section of the issues addressed at the 19th ICED. Divided into four distinct parts — Contemporary Issues for all Learners, The Early Years, The School Years, and Contemporary Issues in Postsecondary Education — the themes considered here span the entire student age range. Authored by 27 different researchers and practitioners from six different countries, this book can be seen as a valuable description of the zeitgeist in the field of education of the deaf at the turn of the 21st century and the millennium.

Education and Treatment of Children is devoted to the dissemination of information concerning the development of services for children and youth. Designed to be valuable to educators and other child-care professionals in enhancing their teaching/training effectiveness, the journal includes articles on experimental research, data-based case studies, research reviews, procedure or program descriptions, and issue-oriented papers.

The papers selected cover the shifting role of school leaders and their preparation; the latest trend in management of devolving administrative responsibilities to schools; and the cultural dimension of educational administration. Drawing on experiences from different parts of the world, this volume explores the above issues and reflects the differences in practice.

This book provides research and application insights into e-learning in China, in the light of two drives by the Chinese Ministry of Education: to implement curriculum reform and to promote quality and innovation in e-learning provision.

The education of deaf or hard of hearing children has become as complex as the varying needs of each individual child. Teachers face classrooms filled with students who are culturally Deaf, hard of hearing, or postlingually deaf. They might use American Sign Language, cochlear implants, hearing aids/FM systems, speech, Signed English, sign-supported speech, contact signing, nonverbal communication, or some combination of methods. Educators who decide what tools are best for these children are making far-reaching ethical decisions in each case. This collection features ten chapters that work as constructive conversations to make the diverse needs of these deaf students the primary focus. The initial essays establish fundamental points of ethical decision-making and emphasize that every situation should be examined not with regard for what is “right or wrong,” but for what is “useful.” Absolute objectivity is unattainable due to social influences, while “common knowledge” is ruled out in favor of “common awareness.” Other chapters deal with the reality of interpreting through the professional’s eyes, of how they are assessed, participate, and are valued in the total educational process, including mainstream environments. The various settings of education for deaf children are profiled, from residential schools to life in three cultures for deaf Latino students, to self-contained high school programs. Ethical Considerations in Educating Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing offers an invaluable set of guidelines for administrators and educators of children with hearing loss in virtually every environment in a postmodern world.