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Research at
Gallaudet University
2005 - 2006

Deaf Teachers in China: Their Perceptions Regarding Their Roles and the Barriers They Face

Status: Completed Begin date: June 1, 2005 End date: September 30, 2006

Description

In this dissertation project a questionnaire was sent to 95 deaf and hard of hearing teachers in 52 schools for the deaf in China, asking about their roles and the barriers they face, their characteristics, educational backgrounds, and teaching experiences. After receiving completed written questionnaires from 73 respondents, 12 of these deaf teachers were assigned to one of two focus groups and were interviewed to obtain a more in-depth understanding of their perceptions. After the descriptive statistical analysis, the results show that deaf teachers in China perceive their command of sign language and utilization of their experiences in educating deaf students to be higher than their perceptions of hearing teachers. They strongly believe that deaf teachers can serve positive role models which have an impact on deaf students' social growth, learning motivation, and future career choices. The deaf teachers identified administrative bias against deaf teachers and a lack of access to teacher education and academic programs at the university level as the two biggest barriers they face. Their perceptions and experiences recommend that, with sufficient communication accessibility and equal opportunities in education and employment, deaf teachers can provide deaf students with solid education and play an important role in all educational and leadership roles that are necessary for improving the quality of education for deaf and hard of hearing students in China.

Investigators