Defining hearing culture in context of Deaf culture: A grounded theory examination

Abstract

This research aims to define and identify the characteristics of hearing culture in the United States, particularly in contrast to Deaf culture. Through three focus group interviews with 18 participants from different backgrounds, including deaf individuals with both deaf and hearing parents, as well as hearing individuals affiliated with the Deaf community, key themes emerged. These themes included defining cultures, audiovocal orientation, mixed spaces, negotiating one’s role as a hearing person, perception, development of hearing identity, and orientation. This study seeks to shed light on the ways in which hearing individuals navigate the world with their primary senses of listening and speaking, in contrast to deaf individuals who rely on vision and touch. Ultimately, this research aims to provide a better understanding of the complexities of cultural dynamics between the hearing and Deaf worlds. Ultimately, a definition of hearing culture emerged from the data.

Points of Interest

• This article used a grounded theory approach with three focus groups to define the larger hearing (non-deaf) culture in the United States by analyzing it in the context of the smaller Deaf culture.

• Deaf and hearing individuals rely on different senses to navigate the world which frequently leads to cultural conflicts.

• Hearing culture often perceives deafness as a disability or something that needs to be ‘fixed’ so that deaf people can hear and speak like hearing people.

• Hearing culture holds significant power and influence over how deaf individuals navigate the hearing world.

• Hearing people are often ignorant of their own hearing status, position of power, biases, what it means to be hearing, and their collective impact on deaf individuals.

Keywords:

• Hearing culture
• Deaf culture
• Grounded Theory

Acknowledgement

The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the Lamar University Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Human Research Participants Protection (approval number IRB-FY19-240) prior to data collection. This research was independently funded by the author as part of the dissertation development process. Participants, transcriptionists, and peer debriefers were compensated for their time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).