Perceptions of Chilean Sign for Teaching Deaf Students: Teaching and Co-teaching as Historical Subjects Communicatively Positioned in the Classroom

Abstract

This article is based on the doctoral dissertation, Sensibilidad intercultural: prácticas docentes con estudiantes sordos de una escuela especial de Chile (Intercultural Sensitivity: Teaching Practices for Deaf Children at a Special Education School in Chile). The objective is to characterize perception regarding Chilean Sign Language [Lengua de señas chilena - LSCh] used by an administrative board and eighth grade teachers and co-teachers to educate deaf students.  This was a qualitative study that used an ethnographic method with case studies from an eight grade classroom at a Special Education School. The sample included a hearing teacher and a deaf co-teacher as well as an administrative board that organized teaching activities. Among the techniques used were in depth interviews and observation including recordings of seven class sessions, transcriptions and descriptions in sign language. Content analysis was based on grounded theory. The study shows that teachers and coteachers of deaf students had better ethical communicational positioning regarding the use of sign language in order to provide students access to all areas of knowledge within the context of the school. The students in the class were not at the same level of mastery of LSCh, making it challenging for everyone in the classroom to understand and express themselves in sign language as well as limits the role of the teacher with regards to the material being taught. This requires additional roles within the school, family and other contexts to help compensate these differences.