Deafness and Deaf Culture as Curriculum Components
Barbara Luetke-Stahlman
(Abridged Version for Proceedings)
This paper is adapted from a chapter in a recently published curriculum test co-authored with John Luckner (Luetke-Stahlman & Luckner, 1991). At that writing, there were no commercial materials available to assist teachers of deaf students in integrating Deafness and Deaf Culture into traditional curricula. With the advent of more deaf and hard of hearing students being mainstreamed and fewer teachers of deaf students working in public school programs, it seemed necessary to provide information that would assist hearing teachers of deaf students in this task.
The model discussed assumes: 1) that teachers of deaf students will need basic information in several areas before they are able to teach about Deaf Culture to deaf students. These areas would include, but are not limited to, an understanding of culture in general, access to human and commercial resources available on Deaf Culture, a respect and understanding of Deaf values, and experiences and association with Deaf colleagues; and 2) that most teachers who will be teaching their students about Deaf Culture will not be Deaf, will not be teaching with Deaf professionals in the educational environment, and will not be involved in current political issues.
Deaf and hard of hearing students should be offered a bicultural curriculum in public, private, and residential contained or mainstreamed classes. An approach for teaching about Deaf Culture is presented below. It is a contrastive approach, based on a system used in hearing, bilingual education. The premise for this approach is that through the study of Deaf Culture, students will develop an affinity for both their hearing and deaf cultural and linguistic linkages with people throughout the world, and will appreciate more fully the advantage of having both English and ASL proficiency.
Both hearing teachers of deaf people and teachers of foreign languages often feel inadequate in their knowledge of the culture associated with the language they teach (Crawford-Lange & Lange, 1984). Typically, both these groups have been trained to teach language, but not culture, and may not be members of the same culture as their students. Yet, educators of foreign language instruction recommend that culture not be taught as a body of facts, but rather as a process.
A process of interactive language and culture has been promoted by Crawford-Lange (1981), Freire (1973), and Jorstad (1981) in foreign-language classrooms. The process is interactive in that the target and native languages, cultures, and cultural perceptions are compared as they are studied. The teacher is to plan both affective goals (e.g., feelings, emotional reactions to situations) and cognitive goals (e.g., thinking about similarities and differences, judging perception, etc.).
Stage 1: Identification of a Cultural Theme or Cultural Aspect
Unit themes should be provocative and include emotionally charged concerns or issues that can motivate students (Brooks, 1968). See Padden and Humphries (1988) for ideas. For example, the study of occupations may not be a stimulating theme for students, but the issue of underemployment, ability to use the telephone in occupational situations, and the socializing aspect of employment may well be. The stronger the relationship of the themes or aspects of culture to the students’ experiences, the more powerful the theme will be for cultural and linguistic studies—and the unit will be more successful.
Perhaps the teacher and students begin to develop a theme of “communication styles” in the home or community. Groups could identify situations where they would have access to communication in a Deaf home or Deaf community and where they might not have access or feel uncomfortable about their level of involvement or ease of communication in a hearing home or community. These situations (e.g., dinner time, holidays, shopping, interviewing for a job in each community, etc.) might be informally role-played or worked up into written scripts.
Stage 2: Presentation of Cultural Materials
Cultural materials are presented to students via pictures, photographs, displays, transparencies, videotapes, stories, computer software, written text, simulations, role plays, pen pals, biographies, minidramas, and so forth. The majority culture language (e.g., English) is integrated into these presentations, but appropriate use of the native language (e.g., ASL) is as important. For example, with regard to the topic of communication styles, students could submit drawings of Deaf and hearing people eating a dinner in both Deaf and hearing homes, role-play a shopping venture in a store with a Deaf clerk and then a store with a hearing clerk, write resumes or want ad columns for a job for the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Broadcaster as compared to one for the city newspaper, etc. The materials provide contextual support for the linguistic component of the unit, described below.
Stage 3: Dialogue
In using the dialogue process, participants focus on their perceptions of the materials presented in Stage 2. For example, should every family member have the right to understand what is being discussed, decided, arranged, etc. during dinner conversation? How can people at the table who are being excluded inform the others of their feelings? What is the relationship between the ability of all family members to sign or speak and feelings of discomfort, frustration, or anger at being left out? The first step in “dialoguing” is to discuss these perceptions.
Students are then helped to analyze affective feelings and reactions to unit themes (e.g., How is discrimination related to communication styles?). They are helped to see how reactions to various situations in the two cultures set cultural patterns (e.g., How does witnessing a hearing parent successfully conversing in sign language lead to other family members desiring that same ease of communication? How does the experience of one hearing customer checking out in a store with a Deaf clerk affect the attitudes of others?).
To write or perform dialogues, students would use ASL or English to express their perceptions and reactions in various situations. The focus of discussion is on predicting and analyzing reactions of hearing and Deaf people and not on use of the correct English form. Teachers are to be facilitators of the discussion—asking questions, encouraging comments from all students, but not judging contributions to the dialogues as correct or incorrect. Teachers are also not expected or required to have a “right” answer for the situations that may arise. Stage 3 ends when formal dialogues are practiced in small, cooperative-learning groups.
Stage 4: Transition in Language Learning
Students begin to examine the language functions, semantics, syntax, registers, and specific vocabulary needed to learn more about the unit theme as captured in their dialogues. If you were upset about being left out of a dinner conversation, what tone would you use to communicate your feelings? How might use of correct English grammar help a Deaf clerk be successful in interacting with hearing customers? What might use of correct ASL by a hearing community member convey to a Deaf person? Dialogues are practiced, changed, and discussed in light of some of these linguistic components.
Stage 5: Language Learning
Needed language (either ASL or English) is now supplied into dialogues and written scripts so that students can practice language in social contexts.
Stage 6: Verification of Perceptions of the Two Cultures
Having a sufficient command of the necessary language needed in the situations discussed within the unit theme, students would be able to verify their initial perceptions of the theme. They could compare materials used initially with current ideas. This stage utilizes a second opportunity for formal dialogues to describe, analyze, and compare the ideas of peers with those of their own. Because of prior language learning in Stage 5, increased use of appropriate and correct English or ASL would be expected.
Stage 7: Cultural Awareness
Students now work to summarize their findings. What effects do hearing loss and personalities have on situations like mealtimes, holidays, and business interactions? Would patterns of behavior differ in different regions of our country? If student perceptions as learners changed during this unit, what influenced them to change? This stage is one of generalization.
Stage 8: Evaluation of Language and Cultural Proficiency
In this stage, students engage in a culminating activity for the unit and use the new language (ASL or English) that they have acquired to demonstrate their understanding of the unit theme. Possible activities are mini-dramas, simulations, planned dialogues, etc. Students should create these activities themselves and be evaluated on both their use of correct ASL and demonstration of cultural knowledge.
Conclusion
The components described in this paper could be adapted for students at any age level by increasing or decreasing teacher preparation and by choosing a theme that is cognitively matched to the abilities of the students involved. The process is workable for students studying ASL and English as the target language. Use of resources from bilingual education and foreign language instruction used in this paper exemplify that educators in Deaf education can look outside of their own specific field for information that is useful in promoting an awareness and respect for Deaf Culture.
About the Presenter
Barbara Luetke-Stahlman, professor in the Hearing and Speech Department at the University of Kansas Medical Center, has an M.A. from the University of Minnesota in hearing impairment and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in hearing impairment and communication. She has been the director of Deaf Education at the University of Kansas Medical Center since 1990.
References
Brooks, N. (1968). Teaching culture in the foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 1(3), 204–217.
Crawford-Lange, L. M. (1981). Redirecting second language curricula: Paula Freire’s contribution. Foreign Language Annals, 14(4), 257–268.
Crawford-Lange, L. M., & Lange, D. L. (1984). Doing the unthinkable in the second language classroom. In T. P. Higgs (Ed.), Teaching for proficiency, the organizing principle (pp. 139–177). (The ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series). Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook.
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. (Translated by M. Bergman Ramos). New York: Seabury Press.
Jorstad, H. (1981). Inservice teacher education: Content and process. In D. Lange & C. Linder (Eds.), Proceedings of the National Conference of Professional Priorities. Hastings-on-Hudson, NY: ACTFL Materials Center.
Luetke-Slahlman, B., & Luckner, J. (1991). Effectively educating students with hearing impairments. New York: Longman.
Padden, C., & Humphries, T. (1988). Deaf in America: Voices from a culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.