The paper draws on the findings of a small-scale empirical study to discuss why the project of inclusion, despite a long history of legislative efforts from the Salamanca Statement onwards, still appears to be troubling. The study used scenarios to explore tensions between inclusion and individual choice experienced by young people in the context of everyday social interaction with reference to the intersection between disability, ethnicity, gender and social class. Building on the findings, we argue that understanding inclusion at the level of social interaction has important implications for inclusive education. We employ ideas from theoretical work on inclusion to suggest that in order to achieve inclusion in education or in society, a top down approach influenced by national and international policy and a rights discourse might not be sufficient; this is because inclusion processes also operate at the level of everyday social interaction where policy has less influence. Such processes, for instance individual choice, are often less explored or even ignored by the inclusion literature, as they are seen as questioning or threatening the moral imperative of including all people. This argument, thus, raises the question of how well we understand social inclusion and provides directions for further research.

This paper explores the role of the Deaf child as peer educator. In schools where sign languages were banned, Deaf children became the educators of their Deaf peers in a number of contexts worldwide. This paper analyses how this peer education of sign language worked in context by drawing on two examples from boarding schools for the deaf in Nicaragua and Thailand. The thesis is advanced that these practices constituted a child-led oppositional pedagogy. A connection is drawn to Friere’s (1972) theory of critical pedagogy. Deaf children’s actions as peer educators are framed as an act of resistance towards the oppression of their language and culture. A contrast is drawn between oralist pedagogy that is historically associated with punitive practices and didactic methods and the experiential and dialogic interaction that characterised peer learning of sign languages. Biesta’s (2009) concepts of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ education are used to contrast these two approaches. The argument is made that the peer teaching and learning processes enabled the self-actualisation of the Deaf children whereas the oralist methods were based on a deficit model that focused on modifying Deaf children according to the norms of hearing society. The implications of this for current policy and practice are inferred to be about access to sign languages and the importance of Deaf communities in Deaf children’s education. The argument is made that space needs to be created for Deaf children to engage in peer learning.

This article explores the relationship between critical theory, specifically Derrida’s (1997) critique of phonocentrism, with the experience of deafness and the status of sign languages. The case is made for an interdisciplinary approach to deafness and Sign that draws on a range of disciplines to reframe deafness in non-essentialised ways. The Derridean concepts of the ‘sign’, ‘play’, ‘differance’ and ‘supplement’ are applied to historical and current understandings of deafness, with particular attention given to educational practices. Derridean theory is used to disrupt assumptions about the status of speech and sign language and to consider how this might change understandings of language and identity. Counterarguments that question the usefulness of Derridean theory are addressed and the implications for social practice are considered. Ultimately, it is argued that Derridean theory can be used to question taken for granted attitudes to language that have led to the discrimination and stigmatisation of deaf people.

The paper draws on the findings of a small-scale empirical study to discuss why the project of inclusion, despite a long history of legislative efforts from the Salamanca Statement onwards, still appears to be troubling. The study used scenarios to explore tensions between inclusion and individual choice experienced by young people in the context of everyday social interaction with reference to the intersection between disability, ethnicity, gender and social class. Building on the findings, we argue that understanding inclusion at the level of social interaction has important implications for inclusive education. We employ ideas from theoretical work on inclusion to suggest that in order to achieve inclusion in education or in society, a top down approach influenced by national and international policy and a rights discourse might not be sufficient; this is because inclusion processes also operate at the level of everyday social interaction where policy has less influence. Such processes, for instance individual choice, are often less explored or even ignored by the inclusion literature, as they are seen as questioning or threatening the moral imperative of including all people. This argument, thus, raises the question of how well we understand social inclusion and provides directions for further research.

This paper explores the role of special schools for the deaf in deaf people’s lives and analyses their role in the future of deaf education. It draws on empirical data collected through biographical research methods in which deaf adults reflected on their educational experiences both as pupils and later as educators. A pervasive tension between inclusion and exclusion emerged from the thematic analysis of the data. The ways in which schools for the deaf were sites of conflicted emotions and memories for deaf people were explored. The participants expressed frustration and anger at the missed opportunities they experienced in their educations. However, they also conveyed the continued value and importance of sites for deaf people to meet and be educated together in ways that reflect their unique languages and learning styles. The pervasive metaphor of the ‘deaf world versus the hearing world’ dominated the discussions. This paper aims to explore this limiting metaphor and to challenge the dichotomy of inclusion/ exclusion in order to suggest ways forward for deaf education.
This paper draws on data collected from 10 deaf adults. Semi-structured interviews formed the main focus of the data collection. The design of the interviews was informed by principles of life history research (Goodson and Sikes, 2001). Interviews focused on the interactive relationship between the participants’ personal experiences in school and the external social forces that structured school policies and cultures such as national educational policies, paradigms of deaf education and social attitudes to deafness. A hierarchical interview schedule (Tomlinson, 1989) was devised with prompts around themes of ‘inclusion and exclusivity’, ‘identity and difference’, ‘Deaf culture and sign language: social and peer learning’ and ‘disciplinary practices: paradigms and punishment’. The interviews and the analysis of the data were informed by Corker’s work on Deaf identities and communities and in particular the concept of ‘ripples and whirlpools’ to describe the complex nature of identity and relationships between individuals and social practices and institutions (Corker, 1996). The aim of the research was to explore in depth with the deaf adults their experiences of attending a special school for the deaf in relation to culture, language, identity and pedagogical and disciplinary practices. A second research aim was to explore the question of how to facilitate access to Deaf culture and sign language and how to achieve this whilst maintaining the positive achievements of inclusive practice including raised expectations, social cohesion and academic achievement.
The data revealed that participants valued the supportive environment of the school for the deaf and in particular stressed the need for specialist support in the form of British Sign Language tuition and deaf friendly teaching methods. However, the majority of participants also emphasised the need for opportunities for deaf young people to interact with hearing peers and to access mainstream education. Participants reflected on the benefits for deaf people who could successfully move between both hearing and Deaf cultures and expressed opinions about the best strategies to support young people to be able to do this. One key finding of the research was the importance placed by the Deaf adults on the explicit support required for deaf learners to become effective 'code-switchers'. A further significant finding was the limitations of current conventions in articulating the complexity of deaf identity in the academic discourse.

This paper explores the role of the Deaf child as peer educator. In schools where sign languages were banned, Deaf children became the educators of their Deaf peers in a number of contexts worldwide. This paper analyses how this peer education of sign language worked in context by drawing on two examples from boarding schools for the deaf in Nicaragua and Thailand. The thesis is advanced that these practices constituted a child-led oppositional pedagogy. A connection is drawn to Friere’s (1972) theory of critical pedagogy. Deaf children’s actions as peer educators are framed as an act of resistance towards the oppression of their language and culture. A contrast is drawn between oralist pedagogy that is historically associated with punitive practices and didactic methods and the experiential and dialogic interaction that characterised peer learning of sign languages. Biesta’s (2009) concepts of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ education are used to contrast these two approaches. The argument is made that the peer teaching and learning processes enabled the self-actualisation of the Deaf children whereas the oralist methods were based on a deficit model that focused on modifying Deaf children according to the norms of hearing society. The implications of this for current policy and practice are inferred to be about access to sign languages and the importance of Deaf communities in Deaf children’s education. The argument is made that space needs to be created for Deaf children to engage in peer learning.

This article explores the cultural representation of deafness in Wilkie Collins’s 19th century novel Hide and Seek. The novel is interpreted through the lens of Deaf Studies in order to explore the cultural significance of the portrayal of the deaf character in comparison to preceding models of deafness as either wholly good or evil and succeeding models of deafness as social deviance. The construction of deafness as innocent and isolated, is explored through close readings of the deaf character of Madonna as a beautiful, spiritual, yet remote figure. In contrast to this, through readings of Madonna’s deafening and her childhood in the visceral world of the circus, I analyse her construction as simultaneously abject and strange. The co-existence of these models in the novel is demonstrated through various examples of the discourse of the “freak show”. Madonna’s rescue from the circus and adoption into the safety of the middle class home through the charitable actions of the male, able-bodied, father figure transforms her manifestation as “freak show” into “charity case” through a discourse of paternalism. I propose that this process of containment parallels the wider transition in how deafness was understood socially in the late nineteenth century. Drawing on the history of deaf education and using Foucault’s concepts of emergence and confinement I argue that this process of containment mirrors the transition from manual to oralist approaches to education that occurred in the latter nineteenth century.

This article explores the relationship between critical theory, specifically Derrida’s (1997) critique of phonocentrism, with the experience of deafness and the status of sign languages. The case is made for an interdisciplinary approach to deafness and Sign that draws on a range of disciplines to reframe deafness in non-essentialised ways. The Derridean concepts of the ‘sign’, ‘play’, ‘differance’ and ‘supplement’ are applied to historical and current understandings of deafness, with particular attention given to educational practices. Derridean theory is used to disrupt assumptions about the status of speech and sign language and to consider how this might change understandings of language and identity. Counterarguments that question the usefulness of Derridean theory are addressed and the implications for social practice are considered. Ultimately, it is argued that Derridean theory can be used to question taken for granted attitudes to language that have led to the discrimination and stigmatisation of deaf people.