The role of uncertainty in the development of disability literacy : drawing on examples of processes of becoming in parenting a deaf child

• This paper will explore the role of uncertainty in parenting in spaces of sensorial differentness which envelopes the relationship between a hearing parent and a deaf child. This process of transformation, a becoming process in an adult life builds on coming to know about life conditions of another individual. Lived, in-depth experiences of disability and uncertainty are what seem to enable parents to adopt alternative attitudes going against societal norms and values about what it means to have a disability. They make choices based on how they imagine their adult child’s future belonging and identity. The analysis builds on the findings from the ethnographic material in a study on parenting children who use cochlear implants. Qualities certain parents exhibited and others were in the process of developing are the examples used to show how uncertainty is involved in ‘unlearning’, an orientation which allows new insights about disability and being deaf to guide decisions and actions. It will be argued that this social learning process does not end in complete knowledge but rather as a way of becoming disability literate which can increase and recede because of how it involves the minds and lives of others. Parents continue arriving as they continue ‘reading their child’, continuous arrivals which imbue their interactions with groups like their child. The frameworks of disability studies in education and social justice in education drawing on care ethics will serve to employ the term allyship to present how following the paths others formed can be studied to develop one’s own disability literacy. The presentation will include an example of an online program being developed to facilitate communication and understanding between hearing people and people who are deaf or hard of hearing in order to increase awareness, actions and commitment to goals of more inclusive and equal conditions.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

specialpedagogik

Special Education

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)