Marta Morgado Lisbon

Mariana Martins
The Influence of Deaf Teachers in the Building of Identity in Deaf Youngsters Portugal
Master thesis in Portuguese Sign Language and Deaf Education - May 2008
Institute of Health Sciences - Portuguese Catholic University

POPULATION Group A Group B Measuring Deaf Identity

This research is a reaction to some
• 75% profound deafness • 75% hard of hearing (severe or post-lingual deafness) 86% of the worldwide phenomena that
• 24 deaf students
are endangering the Deaf
• 15 years old (average) • school with 200 deaf students (nursery to highschool) • school with 30 deaf students (5th to 9th grade)
Community, especially in what
• between the 5th and the 9th grade • 10 deaf sign language teachers • 2 deaf sign language teachers
61% concerns their school roots.
• deaf schools • 10 deaf teachers from different curricular areas • 1 deaf teacher from another curricular area

The major concerns are about •

the mainstreaming of Deaf students,
• the influence of oral languages
Contact with deaf adults outside the school Access to information Access to information on television on sign languages • and the over
A B A 69% B A B generalization of sign language
42% 41% 43% A academic training, which affects the
exclusivity of Deaf adults as
29%
47%
41% 41% B Sign Language teachers.
31% 33% 29%
21% 24%
17%
Areas in the Construction of Deaf Identity This study confirms the importance
of Deaf adults’ role, especially

General
Deaf Deaf Deaf Searches
deaf on internet/ Short titles Deaf Sign Language teachers,
Sometimes Often Never Sometimes Often
teacher Nobody teacher colleagues Asks family Asks
teacher on television
Asks deaf
colleagues
newspaper in the transmission of values, either
A • by story telling, • by passing on
Deaf culture, or simply • by telling

Deaf related
B
about life and the world from their
General questions or doubts Questions about personal matters Wishes for deaf schools visual point of view.

A B A B A B
It is also demonstrated that Deaf
49% 43% 37% youngsters build up a positive
39% 33% 34% 33%
33% 30% identity when they are able
33% 31% 27% 27% 29%
22% to access as many Deaf peers as
21%
possible. This means that the ideal
school to form a happy Deaf child is
the one that has Deaf individuals of
Asks deaf Asks family
teacher
Asks deaf
Asks family teacher Deaf
colleagues
Deaf
teacher Parents Parents Deaf
colleagues
Hearing
Doesn’t ask able to sign More deaf More deaf Hearing with More deaf More deaf
colleagues teachers sign language teachers colleagues
Construction of Deaf Identity in a Hearing Subject all ages in contact with each other.

This research reinforces the need

to create schools for the Deaf
Who is missed on holidays Person most admired Preference for deaf that include all school levels, in
teachers Justification
order to strengthen • sign language
A B A B A B A 67% B and therefore • a sense of pride of
63% 62%
57% oneself as part of a linguistic and
cultural community.
38%
37% 36% 34% 33% 31%
31%

It also reinforces the fact that the

teaching of Sign Language
should be necessarily in the hands
Deaf Deaf Deaf Nobody Deaf Relative Deaf Feels Empathy Interaction Feels of Deaf adults.
colleagues teacher colleagues person colleague comfortable comfortable
100% 83%