Meeting global deaf peers, visiting ideal deaf places: deaf ways of education leading to empowerment, an exploratory case study.
In a flemish case study, deaf role models revealed a moment of awakening, indicated by the Flemish sign WAKE-UP Contact with deaf cultural rhetoric made them wake up, and deconstruct and reconstruct their lives, a process represented by a circle of deaf empowerment. Flemish deaf leaders mentioned acquiring this rhetoric during visits to deaf dream worlds (in Flemish Sign Language, WORLD DREAM): places with ideal conditions for deaf people. Such global deaf encounters (Breivik, Haualand, & Solvang, 2002) lead to the "insurrection of subjugated [deaf] knowledges" (Pease, 2002, p. 33). Whereas deaf education had never provided them with deaf cultural rhetoric and was depositing upon them oppressive societal conventions (Jankowski, 1997), a common sign language (Mottez, 1993) and global deaf experience (Breivik et al., 2002; Murray, in press) in barrier-free environments (Jankowski, 1997) provided deaf ways of deaf education (Erting, 1996; Reilly, 1995).
De Clerck
Goedele A M
GA
Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA. Goedele.DeClerck@UGent.bc
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003469:Culture; D003638:Deafness / Q000208:ethnology*; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010379:Peer Group; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012813:Sign Language; D012933:Social Identification