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In recent years, deaf and hard of hearing people have raised awarenessabout the importance of providing early intervention, support, andresources for deaf and hard of hearing children. Most critically, weemphasize the importance of using American Sign Language (ASL).With ASL, parents and educators can directly and freely capitalize onthe child’s vision to ensure he or she is exposed fully to language andavoids the pitfalls inherent in early language deprivation.

However, as we recognize the importance of using ASL to ensure an essentiallanguage foundation, we must also recognize that increasingly our deaf and hard ofhearing students come from diverse ethnicities, cultures, and lifestyles. In fact, inrecent years the numbers of students in schools for deaf and hard of hearing studentsthat come from diverse ethnic groups has shot up exponentially (Nieto & Johnson,2018). For students to reach their full creative and academic potential, the educationthey receive should reflect the diversity of their backgrounds (Lynch, 2017). Thismeans we should initiate multicultural education in schools for deaf and hard ofhearing students across the country. Multicultural education promotes thedevelopment of cultural competence and proficiency and allows students tounderstand and appreciate differences and values in their own and each other’scultures. When teachers do not include a multicultural educational approach, deaf andhard of hearing students miss their window of opportunity to understand andappreciate the differences between their own cultural practices and beliefs and those oftheir classmates. James Banks, founding director of the University of Washington’s Center forMulticultural Education in Seattle, Washington, and pioneer educator and researcher,notes that educational institutions, teacher preparation programs, and communityorganizations must recognize the need for multicultural education to ensure studentsdevelop cultural proficiency and that they value, accommodate, and respect diversity(Banks & Banks, 2004).

Akilah English, EdS,is a deaf and hard ofhearing specialist for theDistrict of ColumbiaPublic Schools inWashington, D.C. Withmore than 10 years ofexperience, she has taughtat elementary and middleschools in the District andin Maryland. English has apassion for education thatis centered in socialjustice. She earned herbachelor’s degree inelementary educationfrom Gallaudet Universityand her master’s degree indeaf education fromMcDaniel College, inWestminster, Maryland.English welcomesquestions and commentsabout this article ataenglish7@ gmail.com.

By Akilah English

ASL Is Justthe Beginning:

A PLEA FOR MULTICULTURALDEAF EDUCATION

Photos courtesy of the Marie Philip School at The Learning Center for the Deaf

2018 ODYSSEY

Goals of multicultural educationinclude:

• helping students gain greater self-understanding by viewingthemselves from the perspective ofother cultures,

• providing students with culturaland ethnic alternatives for academicsupport, and

• reducing the pain and discriminationthat members of some ethic andracial groups experience.

In Every Classroom 5 Multicultural DimensionsMost multicultural education theoristsagree that the major goal ofmulticultural education is torestructure schools so that all studentswill acquire the knowledge, attitudes,and skills needed to function in anethnically and racially diverse nationand world (Banks, 1999). Banks

(1999) established five dimensionsof multicultural education thatextend throughout the curriculum.These dimensions can be incorporatedinto math and science classes as well aslanguage arts classes. Incorporating thefollowing critical dimensions enablesteachers to create a multiculturalenvironment for deaf and hard ofhearing students in every classroom orprogram.

1. CONTENT INTEGRATION

Content integration occurs whenteachers use materials and examplesfrom a variety of cultures to illustratekey concepts in the curriculum.According to Banks, many teachersoften reject multiculturalism inbiology, physics, or mathematicsbecause they fail to see the relevancy inthese subjects, but of course there isrelevancy. Educators can ensuremulticultural content in any subjectthrough their use of examples without

eliminating or weakening curriculumstandards.Most schools for deaf and hard ofhearing students have ASL specialists tointegrate the teaching and use of ASLinto the curriculum. However, toooften the ASL focus is exclusively onthe perspectives of EuropeanAmericans and does not includeinformation from the works orperspectives of people of color. One of the most important ways inwhich the teaching of ASL reflects theperspective of European Americans isfound in the use and teaching of signlanguage. Most ASL curricula recognizeEuropean signed languages, and theyshould also highlight the rich signedlanguages of deaf people of color. Deaf

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Left: Teachers shouldincorporate the works

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students should be able to learn aboutthese languages, too—how theydeveloped, what they consist of, andhow they are used today. For example,they should be able to develop asophisticated understanding andappreciation of Black American SignLanguage, Mexican Sign Language,Kenyan Sign Language, and othersigned languages. In the process oflearning about these languages,marginalized deaf and hard of hearingstudents of color could experience anintensified pride in their culturalidentities.

2. KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION

Knowledge construction is somethingeach of us does every day, andconstructed knowledge, rather thanknowledge itself, is what we find intextbooks—and this, of course, isheavily influenced by culture. Teachersneed to be aware of this and helpstudents to understand, investigate, anddetermine how cultural assumptionshave influenced our frames of referenceand perspectives within each discipline.This means that teachers should helpstudents understand how knowledge iscreated and how it is influenced by the

attributes of race, ethnicity, gender, andclass. Understanding the role of culturalbias helps students become skilledcritical thinkers and allows them todevelop independence in their analysisand thought.For example, years ago when I wasworking in the elementary departmentat a deaf school, a male student enteredmy classroom wearing a pink shirt. Afemale student scolded him, telling himthat pink is for girls and blue is for boys.He was wrong, she said, for wearingpink. This was a perfect opportunity forme, as an educator, to have an in-depthdiscussion with my students on genderstereotypes. I approached the discussionon a concrete level in deference to mystudents’ ages. I explained that thefemale student was not wrong—thisexpectation of boys stemmed from whatshe had seen in society, which is full ofgendered expectations and standards. Ipointed out that we see these genderedstereotypes everywhere—in movies, inbooks, on the Internet, and on TV. Iused The Paper Bag Princess, by RobertMunsch, a book that addresses genderstereotypes through the eyes of a princewho is not pleased with a princess’sappearance. We talked about gender

identities, social roles and expectations,and our own biases.

3. EQUITY PEDAGOGY

Equity pedagogy is when teachers usetechniques and strategies that facilitatethe academic achievement of studentsfrom marginalized groups. I have seendeaf and hard of hearing students frommarginalized cultures benefit, forexample, from the use of role playingand cooperative learning. Using equitypedagogy requires that we understandhow students perceive social interactionswith their teachers and their peers. Weneed to get to know our students,especially the marginalized students, andto find ways to include them in ourclassroom. We need to allow students toshare their backgrounds, likes anddislikes, favorite hobbies, and otheraspects of their lives. When studentsshare this information, they develop asense of belonging. They are more likelyto feel that you, the educator, appreciatetheir presence. When I was a teacher, some studentshad access to language and others didnot. Students with language accessibilitywould raise their hands to answerquestions without giving those withdelayed language access a chance toanswer. Wanting to create a classroomin which all my students had a chanceto respond to my questions, I decided toemploy strategies that would allowequity of the participants. Each time Iasked a question, I would ask thestudents who typically raised their handsfirst to wait for others who were stillprocessing their thoughts. Anotherstrategy I came up with was having acan and filling it with students’ nameswritten on popsicle sticks. I toldstudents they would be given anopportunity to respond when thepopsicle stick with their name wasdrawn from the can. I also empoweredthe students with less access to languageto ask their classmates for help. In theprocess, all students benefited; thesestrategies helped raise everyone’s self-esteem.

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4. PREJUDICE REDUCTION

Prejudice reduction entails activelyworking to reduce students’ prejudiceagainst marginalized groups. Students inearly childhood education are at acritical period both for acquiringlanguage and for learning andinternalizing prejudice towards others.The people and events they witnessevery day result in development ofattitudes, ideologies, and perceptions.Preschoolers are concrete thinkers. Theyinternalize the feelings of adults whomay be demonstrating prejudice towardothers or experiencing prejudice fromothers. They witness, demonstrate, andexperience shame. They recognizephysical characteristics such as race,gender, and physical disabilities, andthey can connect these to the events ofshame that they experience or witness.Teachers may respond by providingpositive verbal and nonverbalreinforcements for the students of colorand by involving students from all racialand ethnic groups in cooperativelearning activities that promptthem to develop and identify whatis right or wrong from a socialjustice standpoint. Educatorsshould be careful to provideaccurate materials, discussing whatis fair and unfair, and helpingstudents to engage in socialactivism. They can designinterventions to encourage studentsto acquire positive feelings towardsmarginalized groups.

5. EMPOWER SCHOOL CULTURE

School culture must be structuredto empower students frommarginalized groups. Schoolsshould be inclusive and considerateof the struggles and circumstancesof marginalized families. Certainactivities, such as grouping andlabeling practices, the prominenceand sometimes overemphasis onachievement through sports, andthe interaction of the staff and thestudents across ethnic and raciallinear should be examined.

Questions we should ask ourselvesinclude: Who are our students? Who areour teachers? Who are our leaders? Arediverse ethnic groups represented in ourleadership? Is a zero tolerance policy for

bullying—especially bullying due toracial, religious, or other identities—established? Does the school welcomestudents, teachers, and staff membersfrom different cultures? Responding to these questions canhelp educators establish a schoolenvironment that is equitable andaccessible. If the student body of theschool is predominately white, teachersmay focus on how to make membersfrom nonwhite groups feel welcome andsafe. If the school has large numbers ofchildren from deaf families, teachersmay want to consider how best toinclude students from hearing familieswho are still learning about the Deafcommunity and its culture. Sometimes competition in theclassroom or school can hurt aninclusive atmosphere. For example, oneof the competitive events that Iwitnessed that negatively affectedequality in the classroom was theseemingly benign spelling bee. As Iwatched a spelling bee unfold, I saw thatthe students who had the luxury ofpracticing the words at home werespelling one word after anothersuccessfully. However, the studentswith less language accessibility athome, or who had parents orguardians who worked multipleshifts and were not home in theevening, or who were sleep-deprived due to having to be up allnight to tend to their youngersiblings struggled. I realized thatspelling bees do not empower deafand hard of hearing students whocome from nonsigning or unstablehome environments.

At the Center of Success:DialogueI believe one word is key to socialjustice in the classroom: dialogue.Dialogue allows understanding andthe building of trust. Educatorsneed to create a safe space in whichthey encourage students to askquestions and become activelisteners. Educators should also be

472018 ODYSSEY

As educators,

we need to

recognize that

ethnicity, language,

and gender are

contributing factors

in how students

receive their

education.

able to answer a student’s questions withappropriate and accurate information.We need to encourage students toexpress their thoughts and feelingsthrough conversations, writing,drawing, creating dramatic plays, andthe use of arts, music, and movement. However, an educated dialogue entailsuse of language. Therefore, languageacquisition—avoiding languagedeprivation in the early years—iscritical. This means intense use andstudy of ASL in the earliest years ofeducation while teachers andadministrators reconstruct education sothat deaf and hard of hearing studentsfrom all ethnic, racial, gender, and socialclass groups have an equal opportunityto learn. This means introducingappropriate content and supportingstudents in understanding howknowledge is constructed. It meansimplementing prejudice-reductionstrategies so all deaf and hard of hearingstudents develop the knowledge,attitudes, and skills needed to functionin a diverse, tense, and problem-riddenworld. It means working to build,sustain, and empower school cultures.Banks notes that “because of theenormous problems within our nationand world, education cannot beneutral.” As educators, we need torecognize that ethnicity, language, and

gender are contributing factors in howstudents receive their education. We canestablish a multicultural approach toeducation in our classroom. We canhonor the ethnicities of all our studentsand ensure each of them acquireslanguage. These are enormous goals,and it is up to us to achieve them.

References

Banks, J. (1999). An introductionto multicultural education (2nded.). Needham Heights, MA:Viacom Company.

Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M.(Eds.). (2004). Multiculturaleducation: Issues and perspectives(5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: JohnWiley & Sons.

Lynch, M. (2017, April 16). 4reasons why classrooms needdiversity education. TheEdvocate, retrieved fromhttp://www.theed advocate.org/4-reasons-classrooms-need-diversity-education/

Nieto, J., & Johnson, J. (2018).Truly inclusive? Disability anddeaf experience in multiculturaleducation. Retrieved fromhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/242117828_Truly_Inclusive_Disability_and_Deaf_Experience_in_Multicultural_Education

Above: Educators should encourage studentsto express their thoughts and feelings in a

multitude of ways.

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