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Deaf Identity in Adolescence The Rotterdam DeafAwareness Program Annet de Klerk 18 DEAF ADOLESCENTS, in spite of their disability belong to the group of adolescents in general, and, therefore, reflect this group's characteristics. BeCa1.1Se nlany deaf adolescents experience communication problems with their hearing parents, the period of adolescence will have a profound impact on parents and deaf youngsters (Cohen and Long 1991). It is during this period of d.evelopment that many deaf youngsters intensify their contacts with deaf peers and move toward the Deaf community where they face no problems ill communicating. For deaf adolescents, communication problems can easily lead to feelings of failure and isolation and a low self-esteem (Leigh and Stinson 1991). These feelings are likely to decrease or even disappear when deaf adolescents IJegin functioning within the Deaf community. It seems not unlikely that deaf teenagers will develop a double self-image-one that is based on their functioning in the Deaf community and one that is based on their contacts in hearing society (Beck and De Jong 1990). The implication is that the Deaf community becomes the place where a second socialization process takes place for deaf youngsters, one of the most striking features of deafness. In most cultures parents are the main socializing agents. For deaf children, deaf peers and the wider (Deaf) community become more and more important for their socialization (Meadow-Orlans 1987). As a consequence of this double socialization process, deaf adolescents will ask themselves questions as to which world they belong-the Deaf or the hearing. It is very important that the adults around deaf adolescents support them in developing a healthy attitude toward "making use" of these two worlds. In the words of Leigh and Stinson (1991, 19): if their deaf teenagers explore deaf culture and language issues, it does not necessarily mean these teens will renounce their family's values and culture. What it means is that they will develop a variety of means to define their needs and desires, increase their flexibility in different situations, learn what makes them happy and self-fulfilling, and enhance their chances for better emotional health as they recognize the extent to which they can make choices and control their destiny. Confronting and dealing not only with academic but also with social concerns and self perceptions will strengthen the defini206 DeafIdentity in Adolescence 207 tion of identity and validate their experiences. Adolescents with hearing loss will then have a better chance to emerge with more well-rounded experiences, have greater basis for confidence, and more opportunities to maximize their potential in the increasingly complex society of today. IDENTITY AND EDUCATION Supporting deaf youngsters in developing a healthy attitude toward their Deaf and hearing worlds means that education must offer them the possibility to become knowledgeable about these two worlds and their cultures. Since the early 1980s, education in heritage, language, and culture programs (in Dutch, they are called OETC) have become institutionalized for some ethnic minority groups (Moroccan, Turkish) in the Netherlands. According to Demirbas (1990), the main objectives of OETC are (1) to develop a positive self-image and self-consciousness in order to strengthen the individual and group identity and (2) to contribute to intercultural education. The situation of deaf children is not completely comparable to the situation of other minority groups, but there are some interesting parallels. The main difference is that the minority language that most deaf pupils use, a sign language, is not the language they likely learned from their parents; this would only apply to a small percentage of deaf children (10 percent), namely those with deaf parents. It is a fact, however, that the majority of profoundly deaf pupils prefer to use this language in as many situations as possible because sign language is the only language completely perceptible to them (Knoors 1994a, 1994b). During the last decade, education of the deaf has increasingly tried to meet the deaf pupil's need to communicate in sign language. Currently a considerable number of schools for the deaf are, therefore, moving toward some form of bilingual education (Johnson, Liddell, and Erting 1989; Knoors 1989; Pickersgill 1992). Bilingual education entails bicultural education, for in the words of Byram (1994, 4), "a language always embodies a culture." For deaf children the implication is that education in heritage, language, and culture means education in both sign language and Deaf culture. According to Byram, children in bilingual situations must gain insight in their bilingual and bicultural identity. This...

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