Listening to the Voices of Students with Disabilities: What do Adolescents with Hearing Loss Think About Different Educational Settings?

Abstract

This study gives seventy-three students with hearing loss an opportunity to give their opinion on different educational settings. These students were being educated in either their local school or in a support class in government secondary (Years seven–twelve) schools in New South Wales (Australia). At both the individual and the systemic school level, there are differing views of where students with a hearing loss should be educated. Some advocate for local school placement and some for special classes or schools. Still others consider that the place is of no consequence and deem curriculum content and student outcomes to be of utmost importance. What is noteworthy is that most collected views are those of individuals other than the students themselves.

Keywords:

• deaf students
• pupil's views
• education provision
• mainstream education
• inclusion

Notes

1 In the particular educational system being described in this article, support classes are disability-specific classes, located in regular schools which may not necessarily be the student's local school.

2 To ease reading, from here, the term congregated settings will be used to denote special classes or schools for students with a hearing loss.