Deracinating Inequities in Deaf Pedagogy: Theory and Strategy

The aim of the workshop is to identify and interrupt problems in deaf education which have long frustrated its transformation. Each of the three sessions will be led by Skyer, consisting of a multimodal presentation of instructional materials (Lecture), with identified focus areas (Questions), and educational objective. Sessions will require interactive participation by the audience, grouped in one of several Learning Pods. Each Learning Pods will consist of ~5 MU-MA/Deaf Ed. students, ~2 MU Faculty, and ~10 deaf community members. Participants will use Lecture materials and Questions to explore and apply concepts in novel contexts. In doing so, pods will create artifacts and generate discussions (documented via video technologies) that will constitute evidence of learning. Following the three sessions, MU Faculty facilitators will facilitate a closing discussion using a Roundtable format. Attendees will leave the workshop with a better understanding of: Session 1: The Curious Case of Vygotsky in Soviet Russia: History, Theory, Deaf Pedagogies Session 2: Phonocentrism and Ocularcentrism: A Tale of Two Contrasting Discourse Ideologies Session 3: Transformation and Deaf Multimodal-Visual Pedagogy: Evidence from the Field Session 4: Theory and Strategy for Deaf Education in 2021 and Beyond: A Roundtabl

Deaf Research Dissensus: Conflicts of Theory and Practice.

Dissensus is described and used as a heuristic to understand longstanding, structural conflicts in deaf education, its research methodologies and methods of teaching. Conflicts and opportunities are analyzed and a deaf-centric, future-focused model for deaf visual pedagogy is described. Invited Talk at the behest of Dr. Matthew Dye – SPaCE Center & deaf x Lab National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (Via Zoom) Monday, May 11th , 2020

Dissensus in Deaf Research: Scaffolding the Conflicts of Theory and Practice

Value conflicts surrounding deafness—disagreements about senses, cognition, language, and power—obscure research which connect them. The lack of empirical theory about how and why deaf educators teach constrains researchers and educators who seek to reform the field and exacerbates problems related to deaf learning. Researchers and pedagogues invested in deaf education are divided by conflicts of value. Axiological differences result in a nearly insurmountable gap between researchers and practitioners (Easterbrooks, 2017, p. 25 in Cawthon & Garberoglio, 2017). This presentation offers a critical synthesis of the literature on deaf education pedagogy research and focuses on synthesizing issues related to visual discourses and phenomena in teaching practice. Themes emerging from the study evince crucial ruptures in the values, ethics, and aesthetics of deaf research which preclude progress. Conflicts arise from diverse professional orientations, disciplinary foci, and paradigmatic variations but are united by the common problems of teaching deaf students and the promising potentiality of deaf-centric research on visual pedagogy. This study is primarily based on a critical literature review which preceded a two-year multi-method (grounded theory and case study) qualitative study (which is in progress at present). In the early 1900s, Vygotsky described deaf pedagogy as unsystematic and implored change. One hundred years later, Swanwick and Marschark (2010) call our work unsuccessful. Dissensus is manifest in theory’s obstruction; however, dissensus gives clarity relative to the agonistic problems of axiology—the ethics and aesthetics of power in deaf education. Deaf educational theorists need to develop ways to decipher the how and why of deaf visual pedagogy (Cawthon & Garberglio, 2017; p. ix). Deaf social theory enhances how researchers understand vision in learning; however, in spite of advancement, deaf pedagogy theory is underdeveloped (Lang, et al. 1993; Thoutenhoofd, 2010). By synthesizing the following concepts (deaf axiology, the biosocial paradigm, deaf visual pedagogy) I address the following problems: There is no contemporary theory to describe the unified deaf biosocial ecology, no extant theory to productively analyze conflict on vision, or foreground axiology in decision-making, or centralize vision as a strategy to transform power (Bauman & Murray, 2014; Beal-Alvarez, 2017; Fernandes & Myers, 2010; Friedner 2010). There is no systematic theory, no standard toolkit of analytic techniques, or generalized empirical approach. Cawthon and Garberoglio (2017) summarize: “without an adequate research base, there cannot be effective practice. Without an understanding of the needs in deaf education, there cannot be research that supports effective practice. (p. xii). This proposal directly works toward the year\u27s theme: Connecting the Dots. The project focuses on clarifying the issues that disconnect researchers from teachers and from deaf individuals and society more broadly. Introducing the concept of Deaf Axiology Deaf visual pedagogy and the biosocial paradigm of deaf research to the established corpus of deaf-centric philosophy on teaching (e.g. deaf epistemology and deaf ontology, deaf gains in research on teaching) allows for the development of new critical lexicon to productively address and resolve longstanding conflicts of our field. The ultimate goals of the project include opening trans-disciplinary conversations among stakeholders and enhancing the practices of deaf education teacher-educators

Conflict: The ‘Engine’ of Development in Science Research

This Invited Lecture (April 7th, 2020) is by Michael E. Skyer , PhD Candidate (UR), Senior Lecturer (RIT). It was hosted via Zoom for the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry at the behest of Dr. Monica Javidnia, for the Workshop in Scientific Communication (IND 417). The first half of the lecture discusses three extant models of science development (progress-Bryson, revolutions-Kuhn, and social ecology-Bookchin), and synthesizes a fourth (conflict-Ziarek, Ranciere, Skyer), based on the concept of dissensus. The second half of the lecture examines the philosophical foundations of science in deaf research by reviewing a topography of four paradigms of research and examining the contiguous system of: axiology, ontology, epistemology, and methodology in deaf research and disability studies. Critical questions are also posed and discussed

The Bright Triad and Five Propositions: Toward a Vygotskian Framework for Deaf Pedagogy and Research

L.S. Vygotsky’s contributions to social research shifted paradigms by constructing now-foundational theories of teaching, learning, language, and their interactions in education. This manuscript contextualizes and elucidates a nearly-forgotten, century-old component of Vygotskian deaf education research. The Fundamentals of Defectology compiles decades of Vygotsky’s experimental, methodological, and theoretical research about deafness, the psychology of disability, and special methods of pedagogy. Drawing on Defectology, two arguments are developed using the method of dialectics; they first synthesize Vygotsky’s deaf research corpus, then juxtapose it against contemporary theories and evidence. The first argument describes three principles that exemplify Vygotsky’s optimistic framework for deaf pedagogy: positive differentiation, creative adaptation, and dynamic development. The second posits five propositions about deaf development, including: the biosocial proposition, the sensory delimitation-and-consciousness proposition, the adapted tools proposition, the multimodal proposition, and finally the conflict proposition. By leveraging Vygotsky’s characteristic optimism in response to the absorbing and difficult challenges of deaf pedagogy and deaf research methodologies, these arguments constitute a future-oriented call to action for researchers and pedagogues working in deaf education today

Deaf Gain and Deaf Education: In Theory, In Practice, and Implications for Research.

Deaf Gain theory is a significant advancement in deaf research and deaf education. This presentation synthesizes main principles of deaf gain and situates the theory in deaf education research methodologies and pedagogical methods for deaf education. A case study is presented, analyzed, and linked to pedagogical praxis leveraging deaf gains in education

Multimodality in the Digital Environments of Deaf Education (DE2)

This paper contextualizes multimodality theory in digital-epistemological paradigms and analyzes their combined effects upon operations of power in deaf pedagogical practices. Deafness is unbound by geography. Deaf people constitute a heterogeneous, globalized ethnic minority who are singularly linked. Often thought to be rendered powerless by disability, deaf people generate forms of power that disrupt conventional ontology and epistemology by way of divergent adaptations of visuospatial language modalities. As creators and users, deaf people have positioned themselves at the cutting-edge of innovation by developing and repurposing digital technologies to secure insurgent power in the face of sociopolitical oppression. This paper establishes digital environments of deaf education (DE2) as an object of study. Research reviewed in this study (Bauman & Murray, 2014; Thoutenhoofd, 2010; Young and Temple, 2014), demonstrates that multimodality is a critically important but undertheorized concept related to power in deaf education. The paper reviews multimodality theory, entrained as a lens to examine DE2. Findings are subdivided into three categories: (1) the purposes for which DE2 are used, (2) the practices constitutive of DE2, and (3) the characteristics of learners and educators within DE2. The paper closes by examining DE2 exemplars via multimodality. This paper contextualizes multimodality theory in digital-epistemological paradigms and analyzes their combined effects upon operations of power in deaf pedagogical practices, including how knowledge is created and shared by deaf people using digital technologies and pedagogical practices derived thereof. This investigation examines how technosocial tools are embedded in a nexus of historical, social, political, and educational changes—at key times, deaf people effectuate change with celerity. This paper argues that theoretical deaf research is clarified by multimodality; likewise, multimodality benefits by considering deaf ontologies/epistemologies. Converging domains illuminate the dynamism and synergy of technosocial changes in history, and contributes to literatures on the history of technology by documenting complex, interdependent relationships between digital knowledge modalities and the deaf users who drive their development

Aesthetics, Culture, Power Critical Deaf Pedagogy and ASL Video-publications as Resistance-to-Audism in Deaf Education and Research

From a critical pedagogy standpoint, we examined a bilingual (American Sign Language [ASL] and English) video-publication titled “Seizing Academic Power.” The video-publication explores interactions of power and knowledge in deaf education and research and proposes tools to subvert ableism and deficit ideologies within them. By centralizing multiple visuospatial modalities, the video-publication’s medium is also its message. Qualitative data were produced and analyzed via structured coding cycles then interpreted through two theoretical frameworks focused on culture and aesthetics in critical pedagogy. Our analysis highlights conflicts at the nexus of ontology, epistemology, axiology, and methodology of deaf education and research. Findings reveal how deaf students gain and develop critical consciousness within the classroom, depending on their teachers’ conceptions of marginalized cultures, use of signed languages, and multimodal knowledge, all of which modulate power and ethics in deaf pedagogy and research about it. Our study concludes with implications for ASL video-publications for teacher-training in deaf higher education and in research production and dissemination