flip

I am reading a book about cultural differences, and it hit me that the biggest difference between a hearing and deaf teacher is what culture they belong to. Hearing people can become fluent in ASL, but they are still part of the american culture. Deaf teachers often belong to the deaf culture. Cultures have different ways to get to a conclusion. The mind simply works different in people belonging to different cultures, though results are the same. Everything from logical thinking, identy and understanding of time is different from culture to culture. The american mainstream culture is a "I do not belong to a culture, I am indepedent, what happens in the future?" culture, for example.

The nature of ASL and how content is expressed are influencing the deaf culture. With this is mind, wouldn't a teacher who do not understand how to make statements in the deaf way, and randomly gets puzzled at how students expresses themselves, have a big disability in educational settings? Deaf teachers would be superior?

Deafness

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on AllDeaf.com

shel90

My friend did some research and discovered that Deaf teachers are able to identify the gaps in the students' learning. I will have to ask her for it.

However, if u say that is the case, then what about CODAs becoming teachers? They were born using ASL ...just wondering.

__________________
~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

flip

The term "hearing" and "deaf" is not very accurate, but to generalize and use similar traits in a majority I divide into deaf and hearing. CODAS often lack the experience of deaf school, the mother of modern deaf culture, or becoming adult with deaf friends, so it's not all the same. I am not saying that hearing teachers can't teach deaf students, but I am asking if it's possible to generalize to a degree, and say that deaf teachers are superior over hearing teachers in deaf ed? In the fifties everyone belived hearing teachers was superior in deaf ed, but perhaps it's the other way?

flip

Wow, that sounds like a very important skill! Curious why hearing teachers can't identify the gaps?

Hermes

I am asking this to understand it better: Are you saying deaf teachers should teach ASL and related subject, or are you saying all teachers should be deaf regardless of the subject?

-

__________________
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

shel90

I will have to ask my friend for that research so we can see what the reasons were..BTW..my friend who did the research is a hearing Deaf ed teacher and she even agreed with that research. Dang!

__________________
~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

jillio

Seeing it from a different perspective than the deaf, even though they are fluent in ASL. It is language combined with the experience of having been a deaf child.

faire_jour

What about deaf people who grew up oral or mainstreamed? They don't have the collective experience of a Deaf school, should they be disallowed as well? What about CI users? Late deafened?

__________________
-Melissa Jensen

Mom to Miss Kat- 5, bilateral progressive loss, just became severe-profound (implanted 11-03-08 with a right side AB, activated 11-21-08)



http://misskatsmom.blogspot.com/

Daredevel7

I just need to clarify. When you say Deaf Education, are we talking about classes that are taught in ASL only? I don't see the need for hearing people for this. I understand the concept of BiBi but am not sure about the specifications of it, as in is Biology in high school taught in ASL only and there is a class solely for speech therapy? I don't think it's possible for a deaf person to be a speech therapist or at least if the job involves correcting the speech, unless I'm missing something.

HOWEVER, I don't think it is wise to automatically dismiss a potential teacher based on the fact they can hear, because you are reducing the pool of people for Deaf Education. Deaf people are STILL a minority, so if they hire deaf people only, doesn't that reduce options?

shel90

I agree..

__________________
~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

jillio

It would narrow the choice, but it wouldn't be scaping the bottom of the barrell. That is an idiom meaning "the worst of the worst."

But I agree that no teacher that is qualified and able to educate a child should be turned down because of their hearing status. Deaf or hearing.

shezzbeav

From my experience, I've had hearing teachers ALL my life. I only had Deaf teachers teach my class for a day or a couple hours - that wasn't long enough, but I was able to gain access to various Deaf role models, and to this day, I still look up to them

Anyways, back on topic...

When I was on teaching practicum, my supervising teachers noticed that I was able to identify student's strengths and weaknesses quickly - they said that surprised them as the previous practicum students took a while to identify. What you guys have said above is true.

A hearing teacher can be a ToD as long they have a prior knowledge of Auslan (in my case, as I'm from Australia), the deaf culture and is involved with the Deaf community - that's what I strongly believe. If a hearing teacher has none of those valued knowledge, then how would he/she be a good ToD?

I work at a high school part time as an Auslan Language Model (similar to language assistant), and there is a CODA who is a ToD - she is an excellent ToD and has extensive knowledge of Auslan, deaf culture and deaf community. She would be an excellent example to all other hearing ToDs.

shel90

Ooopss..so I agreed that I am the worst of the worst when I agreed to that statement. I was distracted by my son when I replied and didnt realized the meaning of scratching the bottom of the barrell. Yea, that is not how it goes.

__________________
~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

Daredevel7

I think you guys know that's not what I meant.... I'll change it. I meant reduced options. I didn't know that it meant for least efficient people.

shel90

No offense taken. I figured that wasnt u meant.

I have many hearing coworkers who are good teachers in Deaf ed...as long as they recognize that deaf children are like any children and do not need special education services designed for children with cognitive processing disorders. Just need more visual representatives of the lessons that's all.

__________________
~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

ClearSky

I knew a girl who did not have good oral skills at the time, but she did not know sign language. We were an oral class, and some of use would sit around the table to discuss a paper or story we wrote. The girl would talk to the hearing teacher about the paper. The hearing teacher had a hard time understanding her while I understood what the girl said.

shel90

I have noticed the same as well...when we get new students in our program who do not know ASL and have poor speech skills, the hearing teachers struggle to understand them but most of the deaf staff do not. I think it is cuz hearing teachers do not read lips and rely on solely the auditory input and with their speech not being clear, of course, they will struggle to communicate with these students. For us, deaf staff, we are so used to lipreading different kinds of mouth movements, we do not have struggles.

I forgot about that issue...interesting, isnt it?

__________________
~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

jillio

I was correcting you in a teasing manner. Shel and I knew what you meant, but someone else might not. Didn't want you to get into trouble with anyone for using that phrase at another time like that.

jillio

Yeah, I got a chuckle out of it when I read your post, cuz I know you wouldn't agree to being the worst of the worst!

Juana29

hi guys, great thread by the way... I'm sorry I don't write to much because I'm still learning about Deaf Culture and education. For me it is very interesting all the things that you say because my goal is to become someday teacher for deaf kids... I am hearing and english is not my first language, I'm in my second month learning ASL. Eventhough I am a preschool teacher with almost 10 years of experience, I believe I have to learn much more about deaf ed. and how to become the best teacher I can... keep going with this kind of threads, It is very helpfull!!

jillio

Glad you are finding it helpful, Juana29.

web730

Had several hearing teachers who were great deaf ed teachers but certainly not many of them... about half of them were forced to leave the jobs due to their lack of ASL abilities back then (think it happened back in early 90s). Only several hearing teachers (most good ones who knew ASL well) stayed on.

There were roughly about 65% hearing and 35% deaf teachers at ISD in early '80s, but I was told that there are mere like 80% deaf teachers at my school by now. hmm

I'm not sure about FSDB yet but will ask around... but recalled while visiting there few times and noticed quite numbers of deaf teachers there. However, they do have 700 employees there. lol

There will be always some hearing deaf ed teachers around for next 20 years, I'm sure. We do need them otherwise.

__________________

flip

I was thinking about regardless the subject.

flip

Wow, allways impressing when people manages to take the perspective of different ways of thinking. They open windows for the rest of us, at least me!

flip

Sounds plausible. A hearing person would perhaps need some extra skills to see the different perspective, while a deaf don't. Perhaps it's the same way around, too. A deaf person needs extra skills to understand the hearing perspective?

flip

I am not talking about "disallowing" specific people to work as teachers, but aren't it much more effective to use as much as possible deaf people in deaf ed, reducing the risk of misunderstanding and lack of progress in students, with the cultural difference in mind?

I know deaf CI'ers that are more hardcore deafmute than I am, so I wouldn't dream of measuring a person by CI status. CI or not seems to be more of a concern in the health service and parents. As for late deafened, it would depend how late they got deaf, if their mind have been assimilated into the asl community or other deaf community, and if they are able to understand other deaf people as whole humans.

jillio