Deaf Ways of Education 61
These findings have led to a “new body of knowledge” on deaf empowerment,
deaf identities, and deaf activism “that is uniquely grounded” (Goodley et al.,
2004, p. 121) in the life stories of Flemish deaf people. Life stories illustrate how
“narrators often present stories in ways that accent resilience over adversity; so as
to maintain a sense of coherence and personal integrity” (Goodley, 2001, p. 218).
In the life stories gathered in my research, deaf subjectivities were constrained
by the meanings that institutions and hearing society forced upon them (also see
Goodley et al., 2004), yet deaf hands, though ignored by hearing master narra-
tives, never stopped signing. Discourse analysis can be used to highlight the “sense
of discursive oppression and resistance” that “runs throughout the narrative”
(Goodley et al., 2004, p. 101).
To explore this first stage of Flemish deaf empowerment, I have used a montage
of “composed” (Ellis & Bochner, 1996) ethnographic narratives of deaf empower-
ment constructed through narratives by Edward, Gaby, Ronny, Filip, and vincent,
the group of research participants who took the deaf awareness course set up by the
Flemish Federation of the Deaf in 1990 and joined in study trips abroad between
1992 and 1994. These five were all born in the 1960s and have known each other
for a long time. Ethical use of (re)constructed insiders’ perspectives is a legitimate
method for the representation and validation of qualitative research (Roets et al.,
2005), and I have combined my life story research with historical research using
written documents (Jankowski, 1997). The analysis of reports of the deaf awareness
course offered by Fevlado and articles in deaf magazines offer additional primary
sources for the exploration of Flemish deaf cultural rhetoric.
I translated all interviews from Flemish Sign Language into Dutch, and then
from Dutch into English. All participants read and approved the Dutch translations
of the interviews presented in my research and decided either to be identified or
to be anonymous. Those who preferred not to be identified asked me to suggest a
name, which they would then approve. one research participant also asked me not
to indicate gender. Therefore, gender is not discussed. I eliminated or changed the
names of places, deaf schools, family structures, and so on, to protect my research
participants.BACKGRoUnD oF THE STUDy
In September 1990, the Flemish Federation of the Deaf, Fevlado, started a deaf
awareness course, called the kadercursus. The Flemish/Dutch word kader means
“board,” and cursus is Dutch for “course.” This deaf awareness course was originally
intended as a training experience for board members of the deaf clubs associated
with Fevlado (Buyens, 1990). The purpose of the course was to generate discussion
of different aspects of the deaf community in Flanders and draw comparisons with
other countries.^4 The kadercursus was announced in Flemish national newspapers,- The information provided here on the kadercursus is based on an analysis of unpublished and
unnumbered reports of the Kadercursus voor Doven, prepared by Studiecentrum Fevlado between 1990
and 1994 and documented in the Fevlado archives in Ghent, Belgium.