1. Deaf Education Unit.
A growing child adapts to his/her environment on the basis of the experiences he/she perceives through his/her sense modalities. While each of the five sensory receptors responsible for the functions of hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell plays an important role in the manner in which the developing child perceives a given experience, the two that are most crucial for acquiring information about the world are hearing and vision. Dunn (1963) observed that, of these two, the sensory deprivation of hearing results in a more serious educational handicap, for in the absence of hearing, language symbols are not perceived. To support this assertion Stevens (1973) also noted that most authorities would likely agree that about 90 percent of our information input is visual but the aural input while of lower quantity is qualitatively very important. So hearing-impairment is a serious handicap that tends to isolate a child from normal living. He/she is cut off from many of the experiences and opportunities for learning that ordinary children enjoy and has to make constant and considerable efforts to achieve things that come relatively easily to ordinary children. For that purpose the Deaf Education Unit was established in Drukgyel Lower Secondary School.
The project agreement for the establishment of Deaf Education Unit was signed by Harald Nestroy, president of the German Pro Bhutan association, with the Bhutanese Education Ministry in November 2002. However the formal classes began only from 2004 with eight deaf students, five deaf assistant teachers, a teacher and a sign language researcher. Currently there are eleven teachers, a matron, a warden, two vocational instructors, three deaf assistant teachers, a principal, vice principal and 62 deaf students. The Unit is located in Drukgyel mainly to integrate the deaf students with the hearing students since there is a higher secondary school and a lower secondary school. The students are accommodated in higher secondary school for their food and lodging and lower secondary takes care of the academic, vocational and other co-curricular classes.
The school starts at 8.20 in the morning with social work followed by morning assembly with the hearing students. From 8.50 the actual classes begin till 3pm. From 3.30 to 5.30pm the students have vocational classes in tailoring, wood carving and bakery. Besides this, every Wednesday afternoon they have clubs in basket weaving, embroidery and art.
Likewise, the Ministry of Education in Bhutan intends to integrate the deaf students with the hearing students in regular schools. The aim of integration into regular schools is for the hearing-impaired child to progress both educationally and socially with his hearing peers. Educationally the aim is that the child will be enabled to learn at a more normal rate because of his exposure to the work of the regular classroom. Socially the Ministry hopes to develop a confident child who lives and grows up with his family and neighborhood friends in his local environment. Because the child is surrounded by normal speech, language and behavior for longer periods of the day, he may have a greater chance of developing these than he would in a 'special school’. With those points in mind, the Ministry integrated the first cohort of eight deaf students in a mainstream school in 2006. These deaf students were divided into two groups and sent into two sections of class two in the mainstream school. The affected teachers of the mainstream school were trained in sign language and deaf education awareness for about a week only. Due to shortage of human resources, one teacher of the deaf has to look after two classes. He has to move around frequently to help the mainstream teachers translate the instruction in sign language.
The integration classes continued for about two weeks. After two weeks, the principal started getting lots of complaints from the mainstream teachers regarding their inability to continue the classes. The principal, however, requested that they try their best with all the most effective teaching strategies. On request of the principal, the integration classes continued for about another two weeks. The teachers really tried their best with all their efforts. But no matter how much effort the teachers exerted, it was all in vain. So after a month of integration, the deaf students had to be taken back to their self contained class. There were many reasons for the failure of the integration classes which I am going to reflect in my analysis of my case study. However the Ministry still did not give up on the integration policy. The Ministry still feels that in the future when the unit has sufficient trained human resources and materials available, integration will be possible. So in order to determine the possibilities of integrating deaf students in mainstream school in future, I have chosen this topic as my case study.
Although integrating deaf students in mainstream school in academic classes wasn’t successful, it is definitely successful in non-academic classes like games and sports, cultural activities and other social activities besides academic. Of course the teacher of the deaf has to be with them all the time to translate the instructions. The unit still integrates the deaf students whenever there are co-curricular activities taking place in mainstream school. As mentioned earlier, due to late establishment of the unit and lack of awareness of the existence of the Deaf Education Unit, the deaf students could not be integrated in mainstream school per class. By the time the unit was established and by the time the parents knew about the unit, some students are already in their late teens or early teens. Therefore Deaf Unit has students with a wide range of ages in a class. The age in a class ranges from six years to eighteen years. So integrating them based on their class level will have some psychological effects on them. Hence it was decided that the deaf students will be integrated in mainstream school based on their age level rather than class level.
In qualitative research, data analysis occurs simultaneously with data collection, in that the researcher begins to analyze the data as she reads the first documents, conducts the first interview and observes the participants for the first time (Merriam, 1998:14). In analyzing my data, I employed qualitative content analysis techniques (Henning, Van Van Rensburg and Smith, 2004:104) analyzing each unit data with the purpose of identifying common themes and patterns. I also charted similarities and differences, tabulating the number of times that a characteristic appears, and cross-checking findings among multiple data. I also represented the information in the form of a graph.
5. A) Teacher of the Deaf and Regular teachers.
Both teachers from deaf and regular school have almost the same feelings regarding the integration policy. Out of seventeen teachers of the deaf and regular teachers interviewed, only five teachers feel that integration of deaf students in a mainstream school is possible. They feel it is possible because it is the right of every child to be educated. Most feel that at this time integration is not possible in Bhutan because teachers are not ready to handle inclusive class. However most feel that it should be possible if the teachers are given proper training on inclusive education and sign language awareness. Moreover, these teachers feel that for an effective inclusion process, a professional relationship should be developed with audiologists, hearing specialists, sign language interpreters, and speech and language therapists.
Few teachers feel that integration is impossible because the mode of instruction is completely different and the use of sign language in an integrated class might distract the hearing students thereby disturbing the class. Moreover the vocabulary of deaf students is limited because acquisition of language happens only once they are in the school unlike the hearing children. Hence the teachers feel that they might require lots of time for explanation. Therefore they fear that the flow of teaching and learning process will take lots of time and they will not be able to complete the required syllabus in time.
Most teachers feel that besides hearing disability, the deaf students are also aggressive and get annoyed too easily. When asked to deaf students if they are aggressive, they agree that they behave in such a way and gave reasons why they are aggressive at times. They explained that hearing people pretend and deceive them a lot and when they get to know them, they usually flare up. They also explained that hearing students do not appreciate their plight because hearing students take them for granted in so many ways and when they try to explain, hearing students always misunderstood them.
With the establishment of the Deaf Education Unit, the teachers of both the Deaf Unit and the regular school feel that the social stigma attached to deaf children is being somewhat cleared out. Before the establishment of Deaf Education Unit, the deaf children were being treated ignorant individuals who do not know anything. These children were deceived and taken for granted in so many ways. After the establishment of Deaf Education Unit, people started realizing their talents and abilities and were aware of the deafness. They started treating deaf children at par with their hearing peers. However some teachers feel that there is still a stigma attached to them. Those who are not aware of deafness, still continue to treat them like nonsense or stupid. Even most of the teachers do not have basic knowledge about deafness. They think that deafness is a part of physical disability and that there are also cognitive deficits. That is why some of them feel that deaf students are not able to understand what others do.
In order to completely drive away the stigma attached to the deaf students, there are lots of things that the teachers of deaf and teachers of regular school recommend. First, the teachers feel that establishment of more schools for the deaf children in different parts of the country would help in enrolment of more deaf students whereby many deaf students will be educated. In order to give them better education, the human resources must be in place. Therefore more teachers have to be trained and given knowledge about deaf education. Besides this, there are also important needs in technical and material support. For example, teachers wish to have audiology department which would help in speech development of the deaf children. The support should not only start at the school level, but is also important that the parents be made aware of deaf education so that deaf children can get early intervention whereby their language development will be as normal as possible.
At the moment, the teachers think that it’s very difficult for the deaf students to get educated in higher classes. That is why they feel that it is important to give them deeper vocational skills so that these children will have better job opportunities in future.
Sign language seems to be the preferred medium of instructions for curriculum delivery by most of the teachers. Therefore research and development of sign language cannot be neglected. Only few teachers like to communicate using reading and writing with deaf students. None of the teachers mentioned the possibility of spoken language as a medium of communication which shows the teacher’s lack of knowledge on deaf education.
When the teachers were asked, how many deaf students they would like to have in their classes if integration is possible, the teachers had different opinions: some wished to have only a few deaf students, because they thought with a larger number of deaf students, there will be no time for the hearing students anymore. Other teachers wanted to have equal numbers, because they have use bilingual languages anyway. The third opinion was to have a little group of deaf students, so that they can communicate together, because it would be hard to handle alone with the hearing students. Moreover they can give more attention to them.
1. B) Deaf students.
When deaf students were asked if they would like to be integrated in mainstream schools, 30% responded positively. Many of the students who responded positively are those who have some hearing ability. They said that they like to be integrated so that they can make many friends and learn how to speak. Among them, one boy said that he likes to be integrated so that he can teach sign language to his hearing friends and these hearing friends will pass the sign language to their parents and relatives. In that way he feels that the community will be made aware of sign language thereby solving communication barriers between the hearing world and the deaf world. The remaining 70% prefer specialized educational classes because they are of the opinion that unlike a specialized education setting, the mainstream will be unable to provide them with a common language. These students also fear that in case if some behavioral problems arise in the classroom, they will be blamed for it. Since there will be few deaf students in a class, some students feels that they will not have the confidence to participate in classroom activities, but they feel that they can be integrated in non academic classes like games and sports, vocational classes, cultural programs etc.
When deaf students were asked what they want hearing people to think of them, they answered that they want hearing people to think of them like any normal people. They think that they can also learn to speak. About 20% of the deaf students interviewed would like to communicate with hearing people through spoken language. The same percent also would like to communicate in sign language and finger spelling. The remaining 40% preferred communication through reading and writing
More than 50% of the interviewed deaf students want the teacher to speak while they sign in the class. The reason is, that they can learn new words trough lip-reading and some through their residual hearing. The students who have no hearing and are not used to lip-read do not want teachers to speak when they sign. One student think that compared with signs, English is too complicated and he gets tired of looking at two things at the same time.
5.C) Regular students.
Unlike teachers and deaf students, the majority of the regular students would like to have deaf students mainstreamed in their classes. They feel that by having deaf students in their class, they will be able to learn sign language whereby communication becomes easy. Besides they also feel they will have an in-depth understanding of deafness whereby they will be able to understand each other’s problems and help each other when need arises. Few regular students who didn’t want to have deaf students to be integrated in mainstream class have their own justifications. They fear that by integrating deaf students in their class, the attention of the teacher will be mostly diverted towards these students thereby neglecting the hearing students. Besides, some of them fear that the unnecessary noises made by the deaf students might pose disturbances for the hearing students.
Most regular students think that deaf students are like any normal people except they cannot hear and speak. Some of them think that deaf students are very talented and few feel pity for deaf children because they believe that the deaf students feel very uncomfortable with themselves and for that they blame themselves and their parents.
When asked how they would like to communicate with deaf students, some students prefer to use finger spelling, some sign language and some prefer reading and writing. It’s interesting to know that none of the students think that they will be able to communicate with deaf students in spoken language although deaf students can speak given the support.
2. Personal Perspectives.
As a practicing educator for past seven years, I have had firsthand experience in studying a case about inclusion of deaf students into a mainstream school. While I commend and strongly support the philosophy of inclusion, I fear that in many instances we may be moving too fast trying to become an inclusive educational environment and failing to ensure that all the necessary curricula modifications and adaptations are in place.
In my current position of employment I have had the opportunity to interact with deaf and hard-of-hearing learners. In numerous informal interviews, these learners portrayed mixed feelings with regard to their option of mainstream education. While some learners are excited about the educational options and prospect inclusive policies and principles, they are quite content to remain in their specialized school setting. Their rational for this is that in their current school setting, their limitation is the “norm” and not the exception and as such the entire education set up is geared to cater for their particular disability. On the whole, I intend to agree with them.
To enhance proper integration of hearing-impaired students, there is a need to understand the nature and concept of hearing impairment. It can be done effectively through orientation programs for new students, teachers, community and colleges. If there is better understanding of hearing-impaired students, it will promote healthy relationships and all the misconceptions will end. The hearing impaired students need empathy and not sympathy.
There is also the need to introduce the teaching of total communication in the university
curriculum to bridge the communication barrier between the hearing and hearing-impaired
students. The Unit for the Deaf seeks to serve the needs of the Deaf community and of the larger Bhutanese society by training and equipping individuals to have the necessary tools to ensure effective communication with the deaf sector. This can be achieved by having a common sign language among Bhutanese society. There are few films and programs based on deafness being broadcasted through BBS (Bhutan Broadcast Services) whereby the whole Bhutanese society can have a view. But the sign language used in those programs are completely different from what is being researched and developed by the Deaf Education Unit, the only unit for the Deaf community in Bhutan. Therefore in order to have a common sign language within Bhutanese society, the Unit would like to appeal the Ministry of Education to communicate with the Ministry of Information and Communication and make sure that the sign language used in these programs and films are in line with what is being researched and developed by the Deaf Unit. This will help to promote interpersonal relationships, thereby bringing the Hearing-impaired students out of their "closed world".
Curriculum is also one of the obstacles or tools that need to be carefully designed and adapted in order to facilitate the development and implementation of a proper inclusive system. To date, the Deaf Education Unit follows the regular curriculum, which is extensive and demanding, centrally designed and rigid, leaving little flexibility for adaptations for teachers to try new approaches. The timing for the completion of the curriculum is also unrealistic for the deaf people as the teaching and learning processes are slowed down due to the processes involved.
Personnel involved in the teaching in an inclusive setting with the deaf should be appropriately trained and should be bilingual in spoken (written) language and Sign Language. Special needs teachers and regular teacher should acquire competence in strategies for effective inclusion for the deaf.
Deaf adults should be employed in the school to support the deaf child and to facilitate communication between children, teachers and classmates. Since sign language is the language of the deaf community, deaf adults play an important role in the research and development of sign language. Therefore the presence of deaf adults in the deaf unit plays a crucial role.
Strong policies, documented goals and objectives governing the implementation of the inclusion process should be put in place. Such policies should address issues regarding the language of instruction in an inclusive setting and requirements on competence and quality of teachers in inclusive settings. There should be awareness campaigns/workshops geared towards attitude change by hearing teachers and the hearing society at large towards deafness and language. The change should involve significant changes in conceptions and role behavior. Strong awareness of the need to go inclusive should be created. Stakeholders (parents, pupils managers, communities) should be consulted and involved in the elaboration of the plans.
Directly affecting a deaf learner’s development are factors such as the severity and nature of the hearing loss, the age of onset and the age at which the hearing loss was first diagnosed. This is due to the fact that longer it takes to make accommodations for this limitation the more severe the delay of developmental milestones become. Russel-Fox (2001) has observed that for an effective inclusion process, a professional relationship should be developed with audiologists, hearing specialists, sign language interpreters, and speech and language therapists. Therefore The Ministry of Education, in consultation with Ministry of Health, needs to set up a plan for early identification of deaf children and make necessary programs for early intervention. The Early Intervention Program represents a commitment to developing the full potential of Deaf and hard-of-hearing children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds with the aim of providing the knowledge and skills necessary to participate as successful, independent, contributing members of society as well as providing information and support to their families.
It's wonderful to hear that Bhutan finally has a much needed and its very first school for the Deaf.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it sounds like there is a shortage of teachers and educators who are deaf themselves, and who can be a source of inspiration to the students. Are you accepting applicants from overseas? If so, what's the process?