Paper Summary:

This paper provides a critical review of the peer-reviewed and scholarly literature to identify relevant multicultural issues involved in the education of deaf children in the United States today. A discussion of the practical implications for a deaf education classroom based on the critical review of the literature and application of the research is provided in the conclusion.

Outline:
Review and Analysis
Background and Overview
Deaf Education in a Multicultural Classroom
Steps to Improve Education in the Deaf Classroom
Conclusions and Implications for Classrooms

From the Paper:

"In recent years, as deaf adults began participating in and directing the policymaking deliberations concerning the education of deaf children, these longstanding concepts and erroneous assumptions concerning the needs of deaf students were transformed somewhat, but the process has taken longer and required more effort than anyone might have expected. For instance, in recent years, 'Descriptions of deaf children as disabled persons needing auditory and speech rehabilitation began to fade. In their place, descriptions of deaf people as an ethnolinguistic group arose, where the young need 'bilingual education' using ASL as the medium of instruction, not 'special education' using invented or artificial languages or mechanistic methods. This cultural view of deaf people, existing alongside recent realizations of the multicultural nature of contemporary American life, has given rise to a new deaf education pedagogy, termed bilingual-bicultural (or bi-bi) education' (Flood et al., 2005, p. 313). The introduction of these educational techniques has also introduced yet another misconception concerning the education of deaf children. The implications of these trends on education in an increasingly multicultural deaf classroom are discussed further below."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Antia, S. D., & Mccain, K. G. (2005). Academic and social status of hearing, deaf and hard of hearing students participating in a co-enrolled classroom. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 27(1), 20.Authors report the findings of their study of co-enrolled classrooms where they determined the deaf students are not significantly different from their hearing peers in classroom communication and social behavior.
• Arndt, K., Best, C., & Lieberman, L. (2002). Effective use of interpreters in general physical education. JOPERD--The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 73(8), 45.Authors report that deaf students who are included with the general population in schools frequently report experiencing isolation, deprivation, and ridicule from teachers and peers because they lack a common language with their hearing classmates.
• Bat-Chava, Y., Deignan, E., Meza, C., Rosen, R. B., Sausa, A., & Shockett, S. (1999). An evaluation of a college preparatory and readiness program for deaf students. The Journal of Rehabilitation, 65(2), 51.Authors report that deaf students lag behind their hearing counterparts in reading and mathematics, with the deficit being more pronounced in reading comprehension than in mathematics computation. Furthermore, they cite studies that show that deaf youth graduate with diplomas from high schools at rates considerably lower than their hearing peers.
• Broesterhuizen, M. (2005). Faith in deaf culture. Theological Studies, 66(2), 304.Author emphasizes that modern deaf do not consider themselves as impaired versions of people with normal hearing, nor as people with a disability or a challenge, but rather as a minority group that has its own specific language and culture.
• Chaleff, C. D., & Ritter, M. H. (2001). The use of miscue analysis with deaf readers: The authors incorporate recent conceptualizations of the reading process and implement an alternative assessment with hearing-impaired students. The Reading Teacher, 55(2), 190.Authors report that deaf students experience difficulty tracking pronoun referents in stories and recommend that teachers recognize that direct instruction in pronominal reference is needed to help these students distinguish between the number, gender, and case of pronouns.

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