Isolation and aspiration: Deaf adults reflect on the educational legacy of special schooling

Abstract

This small scale, qualitative study invited deaf adults to reflect on their schooling and to consider the ways in which placement decisions impacted on their educational opportunities, achievement and identity. It aimed to document the experiences of deaf adults who had attended special schools for deaf children and to elicit their thoughts on the current state of education for deaf children and their hopes for the future. The findings, based on the participants’ narratives, alluded to current debates about the growing numbers of young deaf children in mainstream schools and the impact of this trend on the changing nature of Deaf culture. They also explored a tension around the balancing of the need for deaf children to access Deaf culture and sign language, whilst maintaining the positive achievements of inclusive practice including: raised expectations, family and community belonging and high academic achievement. This paper advances a possible solution to this tension in the form of deaf-centric community hubs.