Apartheid in Deaf Education: Examining Workforce Diversity

Abstract

A survey of 3,227 professionals in 313 deaf education programs found that 22.0% of teachers and 14.5% of administrators were deaf—a less than 10% increase in deaf professionals since 1993. Additionally, 21.7% of teachers and 6.1% of administrators were professionals of color. Of these minority teachers, only 2.5% were deaf persons of color. Only 3 deaf administrators of color were identified. The study describes how “apartheid” or “intellectual oppression” may result from unchanged hiring practices in K–12 programs for the deaf and in postsecondary institutions. Using a bottle metaphor, the researchers describe how deaf persons of color are often stuck in “a bottleneck on the highway to opportunity.” Relevant data underscore that the field of deaf education must diversify its professional force in order to utilize the intellectual, linguistic, and multicultural proficiencies of hearing teachers of color, deaf teachers, and deaf teachers of color.

Reconstruct(ing) a Hidden History: Black Deaf Canadian Relat(ing) Identity

“…They were offered prolonged and repetitive vocational training that led to the early onset of additional disabilities, underemployment, and a lack of socialization with Black hearing communities. This corresponds with the documented history of education in the United States for Black Deaf children, including a lack of access to sign language, low expectations, poorly funded resources, and prioritization of education advancement (McCaskill et al 2011(McCaskill et al , 2022Simms and Thumann 2007;Simms et al 2008), and reduced livelihoods for Black Deaf adults due to the low diversity of professions, insufficient training, and medical conditions (McCaskill et al 2011(McCaskill et al , 2022Perrodin-Njoku et al 2022).…”

Teacher Reports of Secondary Writing Instruction with Deaf Students

“…Along the same lines, research demonstrates DHH bilinguals successfully developing writing through similar approaches (Wolbers et al, 2018). However, many general education and deaf education teachers are monolinguals, and also do not receive sufficient training and preparation to teach bilinguals in both languages (Henderson & Ingram, 2018; Simms et al, 2008). Teachers’ lack of proficiency in the languages of their students places limits on the bilingual instructional strategies they may effectively model.…”

“…Survey Participants and Their Students. The survey sample (n = 222) reflects the demographics of deaf education teachers in the United States (Simms et al, 2008), with the majority of respondents being white (93%; Black 2%, Latinx 1%, multiracial 2%), hearing (65%; DHH 35%) women (91%; men 6%, gender diverse 1%). Respondents were deaf education teachers at general education schools (15% self-contained and 14% itinerant) and deaf school programs (71%).…”

Teachers with disabilities: a systematic review of the international literature

“…Le condizioni di disabilità motoria, uditiva e visiva, nonché di Disturbo Specifico dell'Apprendimento sono sottorappresentate nel corpo docente, con percentuali molto inferiori a quelle degli studenti nelle stesse condizioni. Nel caso dei docenti sordi si può parlare di "apartheid" (p. 385), intesa dagli autori come esclusione degli alunni con sordità da un ambiente linguisticamente e culturalmente stimolante per loro, in quanto la percentuale di tali docenti è ancora largamente inferiore alla percentuale di studenti con analoghe condizioni (Simms et al, 2008), ma lo stesso vale per gli insegnanti con minorazioni visive (Lee, Abdullah, & Mey, 2011). In generale, i dati relativi alla popolazione con disabilità/DSA impegnata nella professione insegnante sono scarsi (Pereira, Bizelli, & Pereira Leite, 2017).…”