A cross‐cultural study: deaf students in a public mainstream school setting
The 1000 primary school students in this study included a minority population of nine deaf children. The underlying foundation of this mainstream environment allowed for accommodations, but only to the extent that the non‐deaf majority was not overtly impacted. Explicit messages
of equality and implicit notions of normal were often in conflict. Deaf students learned that acceptance was granted to those who complied with the mores of the majority. The author draws on current pedagogical theory and study findings to offer four principles that will help insure a more
inclusive educational experience for deaf and non‐deaf students as they are educated together: (1) care must be taken to understand the lived experience of all students; (2) consideration must be given to scheduling issues; (3) sign language interpreters must be provided for all curricular
activities; and (4) all students should be acculturated in the dynamics and issues pertaining to a cross‐cultural learning experience.
Keywords: cross‐cultural; deaf/hard of hearing; mainstream school setting
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Department of Special Education, Language and Literacy,The College of New Jersey, EwingNJ, USA
Publication date: 01 July 2011
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