56
3
Deaf Ways of Education Leading
to Empowerment: An Exploratory
Case Study
In the last 30 years, a new rhetoric has emerged: Deaf people are perceiving
themselves as an ethnolinguistic minority group with their own culture (deaf cul-
ture) and their own language (sign language).^ Deaf people with this worldview
reject the medical model of deafness, which views deaf people as having a physical
problem that needs to be cured ( Jankowski, 1997; Lane, 1993). Adopting a cul-
tural perspective on deafhood liberates deaf people from oppression and empowers
them. They turn their negative perceptions of themselves into a positive deaf iden-
tity of which they are proud and that can challenge the negative attitudes of the ma-
jority society and redistribute power between deaf and hearing people ( Jankowski,
1997; Ladd, 2003; Widell, 2000).
Studies of deaf people worldwide (e.g., Breivik, 2005; Monaghan, Schmaling,
nakamura, & Turner, 2003) suggest that increased international contact with po-
litically empowered deaf people and the rapidly changing consciousness in deaf
communities are largely responsible for the empowerment of deaf people. For
her diachronic study on the rhetoric of the deaf social movement in the United
States, Jankowski (1997) analyzed published documents and events, highlighting
crucial movements of change such as Deaf President now. Widell (2000) explored
the emergence of deaf empowerment in Denmark by examining “the dynamics be-
tween the education system, the labor market, and deaf culture” (p. 26). For my
research project, I examined deaf empowerment in Flanders, the northern half of
Belgium, through the collection of life stories of Flemish deaf leaders. An explor-
atory case study at Gallaudet University of deaf empowerment as exemplified in the
lives of international deaf role models is presented in Chapter 4.
Research on deaf life stories reveals turning points in deaf people’s lives when they
learned about deaf cultural rhetoric—mostly highlighting transformations whenThe research for the study described in this chapter was funded by Ghent University, the Belgian
American Educational Foundation, and the national Union in Support of Handicapped People.
This chapter is based on my PhD research on deaf empowerment, identity, and agency in Flemish
deaf people and international deaf people at Gallaudet University. My preliminary research findings
and a report of my research in Flanders were published by Ghent University in 2005 under the title
WAKE UP WAKE UP. Stories of Growth, Strength and Fire. MEET MEET, VISIT VISIT: Nomadic Deaf Identities,
Deaf Dream Worlds, and the Imagination Leading to Translocal Deaf Activism. Some of the data were also
presented in the I. King Jordan Lecture Series: The Legacy of DPN at Gallaudet University on March 7, 2006,
in a panel presentation titled “Deaf Empowerment in Belgium and the Influence of DPn Spirit on
Flemish Deaf People.”