DEAF TEACHERS FOR DEAF STUDENTS' BETTER RESULTS

Inclusive education for me entails not only educating challenged children, but incorporating teachers with disabilities as well. One of my relatives, an extremely talented secondary school teacher, had to quit after the hearing loss. Since that time I have a personal inclination to know more about deafness. How are students with hearing difficulties educated?  What is the place in the world for mute people? Having  reviewed the literature I will argue that inclusive education for mute students will gain significantly from training and hiring deaf teachers.

According to the statistics, more than 90% of the deaf children are born from hearing parents (Shantie & Hoffmeister, 2000). Consequently, the hearing parents of deaf children struggle with providing a role model for a deaf child to acquire a sign language. In this case the children’s first language is a language of gestures and signs. Shantie and Hoffmeister (2000) postulate that second language acquisition for mute students will lead to prominent results provided the deaf instructors, especially in the critical period of language acquisition – early childhood. Thus, deaf and hard of hearing pupils will successfully learn a second language if they have a signed language role model (Shantie & Hoffmeister, 2000).

History knows the examples of deaf teachers who contributed to the mute students’ progress. Roberto Francisco Prádez was the first deaf teacher in Spain who had not only successfully taught the deaf children, but also succeeded to establish the school for deaf in Madrid in the 19^th century (Plann, 1992). Prádez is illustrated as a man who notwithstanding the hearing loss became an influential educator and a role model for his students (Plann, 1992). Another example comes from  history of deaf education in the USA. Deaf Louis Laurent Marie Clerc together with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet founded the American School for the Deaf while William Willard was the first deaf school principal and founder of the Indiana School for the Deaf. Consequently, history exemplifies that the deaf educators can make a significant impact for the deaf community.

Some teachers in the mainstream teachers are reluctant to support deaf or hard-hearing students. Vermeulen, Denessen, and Knoors (2011) discovered that many teachers were quite skeptical about the efficacy of inclusion of mute students into an ordinary classroom. Furthermore, this study revealed that teachers’ motivation directly correlated with the deaf students’ behavior and academic performance. Thus, negative for well performing students and negative attitudes for students struggling academically. To my mind, mainstream educators are far from fully understanding the sufferings of the hard of hearing students. The ordinary practitioners can get annoyed by the necessity of teaching regular and special needs students. Therefore, I argue that deaf teachers can furnish deaf pupils with more comprehensible input and support because they precisely know their needs

Sometimes deafness in education becomes a hindrance; sometimes deafness becomes a resource. Mainstream educators are often unware of dealing with deaf students whereas deaf teachers know it inside out based on their own lived experience. Providing a room for deaf educators we can make an impact the community living in the silence. Fruitful collaboration of deaf teachers and deaf students is backed up by the empirical research. I wish Kazakhstan borrowed not only the fashionable educational practices, but also the experience of deaf education. Then my relative could have an opportunity to stay, but not to leave behind educational system.

References

 Plann, S.(1992). Roberto Francisco Prádez: Spain's first deaf teacher of the deaf. American Annals of the Deaf, 137(1), 48-55. doi:10.1353/aad.2012.0398

Shantie, C., & Hoffmeister, R. J. (2000). Why schools for deaf children should hire deaf teachers: A preschool issue. The Journal of Education, 182(3), 37-47.

Vermeulen, J. A., Denessen, E., & Knoors, H. (2012). Mainstream teachers about including deaf or hard of hearing students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(2), 174-181.