Establishing the first sign-based public deaf education programme in Iquitos, Peru

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the dialectic tension between the top-down and bottom-up processes that led to the establishment of the first public deaf education programme in Iquitos, Peru in 2016. This dialectic was initiated by the Peruvian Ministry's adoption and implementation of the policy of inclusive education, an internationally supported education initiative to educate all students, including those with special educational needs, in general education classrooms. The implementation of inclusive education in Iquitos led to an entire generation of deaf youth attending school without gaining opportunities to acquire the linguistic resources of Lengua de Señas Peruana (LSP). Parents of deaf children, dissatisfied with the inclusive education system, formed together to create a parents' association, Asociación Iquitos Unidos en Señas (AIUS). Two years later, AIUS signed an agreement with an existing school to establish a sign-based public deaf education programme, CEBA MORB - Periférico AIUS. We discuss what it took to bring Perféirco AIUS into being from the bottom-up and the top-down processes that both sparked the community effort and then facilitated it.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual deaf education
• sign language
• collaboration
• community activism
• Peru

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Center of Basic Alternative Education - Mariscal Oscar R. Benavides.

2 Association Iquitos United in Signs.

3 For simplicity, in this article, we discuss the language practices in the Iquitos deaf education programme using named languages – LSP, Spanish – even though we recognise that this perpetuates a notion of languages as bounded entities. Research is still needed on the languaging and translanguaging practices within the deaf education programme, which brings together semiotic resources of multiple sign languages, Spanish, as well as the local signs of many deaf youth.

4 While in the process of writing this paper, Rosa passed away from complications due to Covid-19. Her tireless efforts to fight for the education of her deaf son will not be forgotten.

5 Services for the Assistance and Assessment of Students with Special Education Needs.

6 The word periférico means peripheral in English, as in the education programme is peripheral to the principal alternative school. I translate this in English to an “extension program” of the principal school.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara A. Goico

Sara A. Goico is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Sociology.

Moises Villacorta Ayllon

Moises Villacorta Ayllon, Patricia Lizama Monsalve, Rosa Adelina Torres Vargas, Clinton Cerron Bardales are board members for the Asociación Iquitos Unidos en Señas.

Jorge Alejandro Santamaria Hernandez

Jorge Alejandro Santamaria Hernandez is a teacher in the deaf education program, Periféirco AIUS.