‘No sign language if you want to get him talking’: power, transgression/resistance, and discourses of d/Deafness in the Republic of Ireland

摘要

This paper will discuss how, in spite of calls from the Deaf Community for a socio-cultural model of Deafness to be implemented, a hegemonic medical discourse of deafness is still evident in the health and education systems serving d/Deaf children in the Republic of Ireland. This hegemony is persisting through the social authority of medicine, the exclusion of Deaf professionals from the medical and educational arenas, and the vulnerability of hearing parents as they encounter professional medical services. By examining the evolution of the medical and social models of d/Deafness, focusing in particular on the non-use and use of Sign Language as signifiers of the medical and social models respectively, this paper situates the current state of deaf education in Ireland in the context of complex historical processes and relative concepts of power. While there are examples of transgression/resistance to the system, it will be argued that the temporal and spatial limitations on these acts obstruct them from challenging the system overall. This has been further compounded by the changing spatial nature of this resistance, as more and more d/Deaf children make their way through mainstream education. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.