Issues Unresolved: New Perspectives on Language and Deaf Education

Preface: Unresolved Issues in Deaf Education

Preface Unresolved Issues in DeafEducation TWENTY YEARS AGO, in 1978, Tel Aviv University established the Hearing Impairment Program at the School of Education. The program's primary goals were to advance the level of teacher training and to promote research and development in the field of deaf education. The program, which is the only one of its kind in Israel, has changed the characteristics of educational personnel in Israel's educational system for deaf students and has set new standards for research and development in this field. This program changed the direction of my career. As an undergraduate philosophy major, I worked for a few years as a research coordinator at the School of Education before I pursued graduate studies in deaf education and then joined its faculty. As a research coordinator , I was involved in several of the school's research and development projects . These projects included the evaluation of educational reform in Israel, which aimed at the integration of students from different social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds; the development of tools for vocational counseling; the study of the structure of minority group members' social identity; the use of computers in special education: and the study of educational policy in teacher training. As I was considering the possibility of studying and working in the area of deaf education, I wondered how relevant these projects would be to the field. It became clear that not only were they relevant but that they embodied central issues investigated but unresolved in deaf education circles. The significance of educational reform to deaf students will be considered here first, followed by brief discussions of the relevance of four other projects to deaf education. Through my involvement with the project on Israeli education reform, I developed a deeper understanding of the reform, which I have been able to relate to deaf education. Reform in the Israeli educational system was introduced in the early 1970s. The main goal of this reform, which followed similar trends in other countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom , and Sweden, was to increase the integration of students from different social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds in order to equalize educational opportunities and to close or reduce the gaps among various social groups. The main theme of this reform was "equity." Equity was intended to create a level playing field by erasing inherent inequalities and preparing all children for economic and social survival. In Israel, as in other countries, this meant integrating students of a higher socioeconomic status with those of a xvii xviii PREFACE lower socioeconomic status. In the eighties during the Reagan-Thatcher years, however, educational reform assumed a new direction: Its main therne became "excellence." Schools established higher standards for students, developed a unified curriculum with strong emphasis on mathematics and science , prolonged the school day and year, and developed criteria for differential promotion of teachers. In Israel, as in other countries, equity conflicted with excellence. The clear contrast of excellence to equity is obvious. Assuming that resources for educational investments are limited (making it impossible to invest both in all individuals and in the "best" schools simultaneously), and assuming that it is likely that educational investment is a zero-sum garne (Willms and Chen 1989), the conflict between equity and excellence is basically "rooted in different social philosophies" (Bacharach 1990, 418). I have found that the conflict between the two distinct social philosophies fully e:merges in discussions about the integration of deaf students and that these social philosophies are used in very interesting but inconsistent ways. In 1988 the Special Education Law which is similar to the US P. L. 94-142, came into effect in Israel. The law follows the "equity" philosophy and seeks to ensure that proper educational opportunities exist for all children. As a consequence of the law relatively more deaf students are placed in more integrative educational settings (i.e., special classes and individual integration ) and fewer are finding their way to special schools. This is in line with parents' motivation to see their deaf children studying in as regular an educational setting as possible with higher academic standards. In other words, parents' motivation to place their deaf children within regular educational settings is based on the value of excellence. Their main concern is that their children maximize their educational potentials. Parents are probably right in their assumption that the more regular educational settings are associated with higher academic achievements. Even if it is difficult to account for the unique contribution...