Social Justice, Audism, and the d/Deaf: Rethinking Linguistic and Cultural Differences
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Detalles
In this chapter, it will be argued that there are two fundamentally different ways in which deafness can be conceptualized: as a pathological medical condition(deafness) and as a distinctive linguistic, cultural, and social identity (Deafness).The characteristics and attributes of the Deaf cultural community (called theDEAF-WORLD in American Sign Language) will be explored: the role and place of its vernacular language (ASL), the awareness of group identity shared by its members, its distinctive behavioral norms, its endogamous marital patterns, the cultural artifacts that are most closely associated with it, its shared, insider historical knowledge, the network of voluntary social organizations that Deaf people have created and maintain, the body of jokes and humorous stories popular in the DEAF-WORLD, and finally, the literature, theatre, poetry, and visual art that has been produced by its members and which are reflective of it score values and concerns. The case for the existence and implications of a distinctively Deaf epistemology will then be discussed, and the implications of such an ethno-epistemology for deaf education will be offered. Next, it will be suggested that these two different ways of conceptualizing deafness lead to fundamentally incompatible approaches to addressing both the needs of deaf people in general and the special needs of deaf children in particular. For many deaf children, it will be argued that access to ASL and preparation for future membership and participation in the DEAF-WORLD is the most appropriate objective for education. Such an objective is, to a significant degree, incompatible with the goals of inclusive education and requires a very different kind of education. The elements of such an education for deaf children will then be outlined.
En R. Papa (Ed.), Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education.