Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

9

1

Deaf Flourishing: A Framework

for Developing Deaf People’s

Identity and Empowerment

The research presented in this book grew out of the life stories of Flemish deaf

role models who have shared their stories of empowerment, identity, and learn-

ing with me. From my first study of these stories, I developed a fascination for this

community’s emancipation, its members’ identity transformations, and the role of

transnational interaction as revealed during signed storytelling in deaf clubs. These

processes of change were often described by deaf community members^1 using met-

aphors of sleep and awakening to convey the dynamic of empowerment and images

of nature, such as blooming or blossoming, to refer to reaching one’s potential

(see Chapters 3 and 6).

Then, as a visiting scholar at Gallaudet University, I noted this same theme in

international deaf people’s stories of awakening during exchanges of experiences;

this phenomenon inspired my interest in cross-cultural perspectives and in both the

commonalities and diversity in the empowerment of deaf lives worldwide, which

met at a crossroads at Gallaudet (as described in Chapter 4). I was enchanted by

their creative use of symbols, such as a tree growing roots. I again noted similar

metaphors when conducting research in Cameroon (Chapter 5), and I deepened

my understanding of these experiences by studying the formation of indigenous

and hybrid notions of deaf flourishing as they emerged in medias res in transnational

settings of development (Chapter 8).

This use of metaphor in daily life is exemplified by the following narrative extract

from, Jonah, a Flemish deaf person at Gallaudet, for whom the image of a seed

growing into a flower gives meaning to his quest for deaf identity and the role of

deaf peers in facilitating learning processes that enable navigation through life:

I feel that most things come from myself, independently. I fought, and looked

on my own. I took a deaf course. I tried. I feel that is because I have a seed

1. In deaf studies, deaf is often used to refer to “the audiological condition of not hearing,” while
   Deaf is used to refer to “a particular group of deaf people who share a language and a culture” (Padden
   & Humphries, 1988, p. 2). In alignment with the naturalized epistemological stance that is handled in
   the book (see Chapter 2), which is oriented toward describing a diversity of human practices, a d/D
   distinction is not made. I also draw on the work of Breivik and colleagues (2002) who note that “today,
   however, the terms and distinction are not only confusing, as Fjord (1996) states, ‘but in a constant
   state of flux within the deaf community' (1996:66).” The book concentrates on deaf cultural practices
   in deaf/sign language communities around the world, and introduces terms and views that are handled
   in these diverse communities as well as terms that are used in theoretical discussions.