On Ethics and Deafness: Research, Pedagogy and Politics

Abstract

This paper considers ethical issues surrounding the education of students with significant hearing losses. Rather than focusing on history or current challenges, it looks ahead to the not-too-distant future to examine the likely collision of ethics, pedagogy and politics. To a large extent, ethical issues looming on the horizon can be tied back to older challenges, not in any causal sense, but in the sense of recognising that forces which drove disagreements and barriers to educational progress in the past are likely to continue or re-emerge in new forms in the future. In one sense, this prospective analysis reflects the frustration of many educators, parents and researchers. Rather than being pessimistic, however, it argues that if we are cognisant of our less than stellar progress in the past, we have the potential to make great strides in deaf education in the future. Only by being fully informed by objective evidence and setting aside philosophical and emotional considerations can we best serve deaf and hard-of-hearing students of tomorrow. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords:

• deaf education
• learning
• socialization
• ethics