Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

78 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

arriving at Gallaudet, what it means to be deaf in their home countries, and how

this identity construction differs from and/or conflicts with the identity and agency

they formed at Gallaudet. Thus, this chapter explores why the Gallaudet identity

construction is experienced as empowering, while also highlighting the tension that

awakened individuals may encounter when they take this construction and its asso-

ciated empowerment and worldview back to their home countries.

Human development, the empowering transformation of deaf identities, transna-

tionalism, social change, space/place, and cross-cultural comparison of different

meanings of deafness in different contexts are themes that come to the forefront

in the excerpt above and in the other narratives presented in this chapter.^3 These

themes lead to another question: What theoretical frame works and tools of analysis

are adequate for a case study such as this? Identity has been studied in different dis-

ciplines, such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, deaf studies, and geography,

each with its own strengths and limits. Therefore, to provide an adequate frame of

reference, I approach the information presented in this chapter from an interdis-

ciplinary point of view, which draws on the sociohistorical school to conceptualize

identity as a learning process, and employs a multi-dimensional framework of iden-

tity dynamics to look at shifts in deaf identities.

vARIED AnD CULTURALLy SITUATED

DEAF IDEnTITIES

Since their foundation in Europe and the United States in the 19th century, deaf

schools have been places where deaf children can grow up and acquire sign lan-

guage in interaction with deaf peers. Deaf school graduates continued their so-

cialization in deaf clubs close to these schools. Initially, there was room in these

schools for manual instruction. However, toward the end of the 19th century and

influenced by industrialization, deviance from the norm was less tolerated. After the

Milan conference in 1880, sign language was considered a threat to deaf children’s

acquisition of spoken language and was prohibited in deaf education in most coun-

tries (Fisher & Lane, 2003; Widell, 2000; Burch, 2002).

oralism resulted in serious linguistic and cultural oppression of deaf people.

Lib eration movements in the 1960s provided fresh perspectives and momentum

for the emancipation movements of minority groups. Influenced by sign lan-

guage research, Total Communication philosophies^4 were developed and adopted

world wide. In the 1970s, manual instruction returned to the classroom, although

3. Chapters 1 and 2 provide further theoretical reflection on these themes, which are also
   illustrated by the case studies and narratives in Chapters 3, 5, 6 and 8, alongside methodological and
   epistemological reflection.


4. Total Communication starts from the point of view that deaf people should be able to use all kinds
   of forms of communication in interaction with hearing people, including oral, written, and manual
   forms (Schermer et al., 1991).