Positioned as bystanders : deaf students’ experiences and perceptions of informal learning phenomena

Abstract

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, 2011.

Deaf students are more likely than ever before to attend public school with their hearing
 peers. It is common, however, to find only one deaf student in a classroom. To a limited
 extent, deaf students learn from, and participate in, their school environments. The
 existing literature suggests that deaf individuals educated with hearing peers do not access
 or understand the importance of informal learning until later in life. This study focuses on
 the marginalization of deaf students during informal interactions with hearing peers and
 the resulting reduction in informal learning opportunities. Schools seem to frequently but
 incorrectly assume that knowledge conveyed through these interactions is equally shared
 by deaf and hearing students. If deaf students do not have access to these informal
 interactions, how will they learn, understand, and relate to what is transpiring? This
 study centered on one Deaf eighth grade student as a telling case in a network of
 relations. Constructive grounded theory was employed as an analytical framework, and a
 participation framework explored discursive processes. Extensive data were collected
 and analyzed. Sources included a survey, transcriptions, freewriting entries, fieldnotes,
 and running log. A new theory of Access-Participation was constructed to illuminate the
 Deaf students’ informal learning experiences and perceptions. Informal learning
 phenomena, this research suggests, surround, but seldom include the Deaf students. Key
 findings were that the highly bilingual Deaf students, who had optimal privileged lives,
 knew they were missing information but did not realize the extent or degree of
 information missed; access to information attained through common, shared, and
 intelligible language results in informal learning; and the Deaf students wished they had
 immediate access to the surrounding information. Based on analyses, the Deaf students’ schools did not provide adequate opportunities for informal and incidental learning. As a
 result they had become bystanders, relegated to the periphery of interactions. These Deaf
 students have been compelled to become resilient and savvy navigators of their schools’
 informal learning environments in order to flourish.