Inclusion of multilingual deaf children and youth in London: perspectives from hearing mothers from black and ethnic minority backgrounds and ethnographic observations from two mainstream schools with deaf resource bases

Abstract

In this anthropological study of deaf children and youth’s relationships with adults that are familiar to them, the multiple identities they agree or refuse to take on as they move between various places and communities are discussed. Centring on an ethnographic sample of hearing mothers of deaf children as well as deaf children and youth attending mainstream schools with deaf provision and their specialist staff, the study highlights the very different ways in which deaf children and youth are included in and excluded from opportunities for participation, and ultimately, learning. Explored through notions such as co-presence, collaboration, community, participation, boundaries, and communicative repertoire, the study captures everyday processes in which deafness is perceived and constructed socially as they are played out within broader ideological contexts such as language planning and deaf education.