Study Materials
Fall 2011
TEST #2
American Deaf Culture ASL 125
Lecturer Clyde Vincent
Deaf in America
Voices from a Culture
CAROL PADDEN, TOM HUMPHRIES
Introduction
1. Learning to Be Deaf
2. Images of Being
3. A Different Center
4. Living in Others' World
5. A Changing Consciousness
6. The Meaning of Sound
7. Historically Created Lives
References
Index
Purpose: to stress the fact that
culture is learned, and discover
what it is that Deaf Children learn
• It is very helpful in understanding
the culture to look at children’s
“errors”, which are not in fact
really errors but clear attempts to
apply what they are learning
from their culture.
As infants we begin to acquire our
culture from those around us • our parents
• siblings
• relatives
• friends
• teachers
• The wisdom of the group is passed
down from generation to generation. Not
only is culture learned, but it is shared
with a very large group.
The Deaf person’s own
family life
•
•
•
•
“others” being all around.
learning about the minds of others.
“DEAF” at home referred to “us”.
going to school had a different meaning, “not
like us”.
• others “had an affliction”.
• the self as “unmarked” prior to others’ definition
of them.
The meaning of
deafness
deaf
DEAF
dEaf
dEAF
Deaf
DEAF
dEaF
deaf
deaf
Learn about
the minds of
others
Cultures limit the capacity to
know.
• The meaning of deafness.
• Culture interaction based on speaking.
• Learning what things are supposed to mean
and how to think about relationships between
events.
• Guided by the conventions of their culture.
• Different ways the “recipes” and “instructions”
of their worlds guide the perceptions and
theories.
Deaf Students Experiencing
Severe Emotional Disturbance
INTERNALIZATION
Internalization
•Response to outside
attitudes.
•Alienation from others.
•Pride of their group
identification.
Exposure to Culture – Deaf Culture
• Theory of themselves
• Theory of “others”
• Theory “others” hold about them
• New Term = AUDISM
Identification and
Marginalization
Blaming the system
Attitudinal problems??????
• Low-verbal deaf
• Uneducated deaf
• Products of the system
Changing terms
•
•
•
•
High functioning
Low functioning
Highly visual oriented
Lowly visual oriented
1. To discover the imagery
that Deaf people use to talk
about their origin.
2. To understand the basic
beliefs Deaf people have
about the essentials for being.
Images of Being
• It takes a long time to recognize
about origins of self.
• It retells through years and years.
• It is a structure to provide a sense
of continuity to the community.
• It is the “carriers” of history and
knowledge to pass on.
Meanings of
Deaf and “deaf”
• Culturally-lingually Deaf
• “deaf”
• Different labels
• explanation for these errors
(little/very HH)
• official definition
The central point of
reference
•
Conventions for describing relationships
1. between conditions and identities
2. alignment toward a different center
3. “exceptional” Deaf people
As the first recipient of the
Powrie V. Doctor Chair of
Deaf Studies at Gallaudet
University, Leo wrote the
revolutionary book, “A
Deaf Adult Speaks Out”, the
very first book about the
Deaf Community from a
Deaf educator's point of
view. This very popular title
is currently in its third
printing and is still widely
recognized and used over
30 years later.
Leo Jacobs’s categories of
deaf people
•
•
•
•
•
•
Average deaf adults
Pre-lingually deaf adults
Post-lingually deaf adults
Products of system/program/school
“Heafie” (hearing – deaf)
“oral failure”
Of, by, and for the
Deaf
• The group’s official name for
itself
• To specify “of the Deaf” in their
names
• To run by the Deaf
“Disabled” as a label
• Political self-representations and goals
• Language of “access” and “civil rights”
• “disabled” not as a primary term of selfidentification
• Advantageous label for discounts or grants
The term “disability” is
mentioned
• Deaf people have strong
objections to this label.
• Many gladly would receive
services and benefits available
under this label.
• Therapists/professionals
must avoid stereotypical
pictures of deafness and
focus on the individual
within.
Chapter 4: Living in Others’ World
• Associated with
Leading Hearing
figures
Chapter 5
Deaf in America,
Voices from A Culture
Edgar Shroyer
Chapter 7
Historically Created Lives
• all cultures are historically created
• the importance of being connected
to the past
• There are disconnections with the
past due to lack of language,
communication, isolation and
social deprivation.
Battling against lives proposed
by others
• endured through many generations
• rebuked others’ beliefs about what kinds of
lives
• mocked ideal of the “restored to society”
• lived almost entirely within the world of
others
Shifted away from residential schools to
mainstreaming movement
Mainstreaming
schools
Residential schools
Sign Language System
American Sign Language
Deaf children
need to have
access to adult
models of a
human language.