The Body as a Canvas: Developing a Deaf Bodily Habitus in Deaf Signing Preschools
Temas
Detalles
The authors of this chapter, one deaf and one hearing, are educational anthropologists who explore how deaf bodies become social agents that mediate the spaces around them. They describe their research in signing preschools located in three different countries that provide opportunities for deaf children to learn their country’s formal sign language, be introduced to Deaf culture, and acquire a Deaf habitus. There are detailed examples of the process by which these children acquire social awareness and physical approaches to create cultural perspectives of their bodies as representative of their society and of deaf identities. Readers will see how teachers can support the early development of a Deaf bodily habitus by introducing Deaf cultural norms of eye gaze, attention elicitation strategies, joint attention, facial expressions, and body language, which are some of the building blocks of a culturally Deaf identity.
En I. Leigh y C. O’Brien, Deaf Identities: Exploring New Frontiers.