“No sign language if you want to get him talking”: power, transgression/resistance and discourses of d/Deafness in the Republic of Ireland.
Mathews, Elizabeth S.ORCID: 0000-0001-7588-3256
(2011)
“No sign language if you want to get him talking”: power, transgression/resistance and discourses of d/Deafness in the Republic of Ireland.
"Population, Space and Place", 17
(4).
pp. 361-376.
ISSN 1544-8444
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 in the Republic of Ireland. This hegemony is persisting through the social authority of medicine, the exclusion of Deaf professionals from these areas, and the vulnerability of hearing parents as they encounter the medical services. By examining the evolution of the medical and social models of 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 may their way through mainstream education.