A Qualitative Approach to Study the Identity Development of Deaf Students in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47985/dcidj.445Keywords:
Deaf identity, deaf identity development, hearing impairment, inclusive classrooms, qualitative approachAbstract
Purpose: This research aimed to explore the deaf identity development process and to compare the identity status of deaf children in India, based on their exposure to inclusive and segregated educational institutions. The first section of the paper presents the Deaf Identity Development Models proposed by other researchers, while the second section deals with the information acquired from the deaf students in the study sample.
Method: Forty pre-lingual deaf students were selected through a purposive sampling technique. The study tool was an adapted version of the Deaf Identity Development scale. The data was analysed qualitatively through content analysis. Identified themes were presented along with the verbatim statements.
Results: The findings revealed that the age of onset of hearing loss, degree of hearing impairment, parents' hearing ability, family's socio-economic status, parents' education, family environment, the attitude of parents, social exposure, present and past experiences and social acceptance of the deaf child contribute tremendously to the development of an identity. The study also found that most of the deaf students who had not attended special schools possessed a culturally marginal identity, whereas students with prior special school experience possessed a bicultural identity and were better adjusted in the inclusive schools as compared to their counterparts.
Conclusion: Further research is suggested, with a special focus on how people with different degrees of congenital hearing impairment experience and negotiate their identity in context.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License By-NC-ND 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
