240 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
The method we explored in working with these communities in Cameroon and
Uganda valorizes indigenous knowledge, including epistemic, linguistic, cultural,
social, and economic practices, which is comparable to what Diale and Fritz (2007,
p. 310) refer to as anasset-based community development approach that seeks to uncover, through
dialoguing and interaction, the human, social, political, economic, natural,
physical and cultural strengths and intrinsic leadership within a community,
acknowledging the community’s means of coping and adapting to prevailing
conditions.This notion of indigenous knowledge “that people in a given community have
developed over time” (Diale & Fritz, 2007, p. 319) likely involves increasingly
creative and hybrid forms of learning, resulting from interaction between West-
ern and non-Western expertise. For example, in January 2013, in response to
a student strike at the Wakiso school, the Ugandan deaf community organized
a meeting to discuss the school’s problems (also see Chapter 1).^7 The school
had been established by deaf leaders in 2003 in response to a lack of secondary
deaf education and had become government funded in 2008. The students
had been on strike for weeks to protest against corruption and plans for reor-
ganization in favor of new staff who had no training or experience in UgSL or
teaching deaf students.
Their campaign raised concern among deaf adults, who arranged for a meeting
on a Sunday afternoon after church that was open to all community members, who
were welcome to actively participate or just observe. For four hours, the issues were
discussed by students, staff, community leaders, and representatives from disability
organizations following a prescribed agenda—they asked for background informa-
tion, looked for solutions, and agreed on a strategy and action plan. This included
potential roles for the UNAD and Uganda’s deaf member of parliament (for fur-
ther information on Uganda’s deaf member of parliament, see Lutalo-Kiingi & De
Clerck, 2015g). Ultimately, the students were successful in their protest and nego-
tiations, as a new director and board were appointed and the teachers were able to
continue.
The meeting creatively blended expert and indigenous perspectives, local forms
of dialogue, and frameworks for idea exchange derived from development work,
such as action plans, which suggests an ability to harness fluid processes of learning
in sustainable development and a critical awareness of the hierarchies involved in
partnership (also see Crewe & Axelby, 2013; De Clerck, 2015; Lutalo-Kiingi & De
Clerck, 2015a; Sillitoe, Bicker, & pottier, 2002). Such indigenous efforts embody the
vitalization and channeling of transnational exposure that has been explored within
this section and serve as a useful exemplar of how developing deaf communities can- This example was included in my presentation at the 2015 International Congress on Education
of the Deaf, titled “Moving Towards Educational partnership in the Age of Identity and Diversity.”