"Me & Action Research"

I was born deaf and I am the educational product of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Throughout my elementary, middle, and high school years, the education services that I received were “tailored” to specific needs and put together in yearly IEP’s. However, I often faced numerous obstacles communicating with my teachers beyond the basic concepts. I often felt that the deaf student’s community was neglected in regard to bringing the parents of deaf students together to support us in the educational process and recruiting deaf teachers.

As a deaf educator, one main goal in my professional career is to advocate for deaf students and work with schools to find creative solutions to bridge the communicational gap between deaf students and their teachers through, not only better instructional practices, but also, through a better understanding of the deaf culture, greater parental involvement, and deaf professionals in the school.

I am firmly convinced that research is needed in order to identify, understand, and propose solutions to the various dilemmas that affect the deaf education programs. An urgent task to be addressed in research practices is determining the effectiveness of the current procedures to determine qualifications of teachers and interpreters working with deaf students, and means to increase participation of deaf professionals in careers related to education. A personal experience may further illustrate my point; two years ago, I attended a State Conference for Deaf Educators, however, only 11 of the 200 members were deaf (including myself). In addition, many of the “deaf/hearing educators” required sign language interpreters because they were not proficient in sign language. The question that had been bothering me since I was in elementary school came back to me in the same simple terms and unfortunately, remains without response; if deaf educators are not proficient in sign language, how are they able to communicate and teach deaf students effectively?

Research can bring new light regarding key questions; does our current educational regulation sets up appropriate procedures to qualify teachers to work with deaf students? Are there adequate workshops, trainings, and staff development activities that focus on improving sign language skills for deaf educators and enhance their knowledge about the psychology of deafness? Are our current teacher evaluation measures a true reflection of the teacher’s capacity to teach deaf students? School leaders need to take an active role in initiating a conversation about these issues and advocate for research that can bring new ideas about how to increase recruitment of deaf teachers and administrators, and ways to bring the parents of the deaf to become active participants in the educational process of their children.