Approximation to a case study in educational integration from the point of view of the auditory disability

Identificador:  TDX:714

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX714

Autors:  Salas Figueroa, Patricia Maria del Rosario

Resum:
Research aim: to study the development of compensating strategies to the auditory deficit in subjective processes of educational integration in deaf persons.Method: a case study of five deaf persons who finished higher education was carried out. The starting point was another case study done by said researcher but based on non-participatory observation. The corresponding results took the researcher to the restatement of the research aim into a different perspective: the individuals' integration point of view.The analysis was performed from three focus of attention: studies on language and its relation to the auditory disability, considerations on the topic of educational integration in said individuals and contributions taken from areas of knowledge closely connected to the biographic-narrative investigation in education.The research was performed in two consecutive stages. During the first one, five autobiographic writings were analyzed based on a contrastive case study. Following a qualitative focus, two levels of analysis were determined: the author's and the narrator's. The first one refers to the real being who wrote the writings. The second one is a construction arising from the discourse itself and represents the perceptions the researched individuals had on their own integration processes. The second stage corresponds exactly to the biographic-narrative methodology and studies deeply one of the previous stage cases. Besides the autobiography, others instruments were used, such as interviews with the autobiographic text author through MSN, other interviews were carried out in situ with primary and secondary teachers at the referenced institutions and others were done with the deaf persons' relatives. Data were processed at a first level of analysis by means of a biogram that was then interpreted at a second level of analysis by means of a narrative report.Results: the research showed that deaf persons, independently of their auditory loss degree and of their prosthesis development, could overcome -when compensating strategies to the deficit were developed- the obstacles coming from the educational system and became strengthened from their own experiences, thus turning them into the basis for future development. These experiences are built on the base of their own efforts and perseverance, as well as on the institutions' understanding and knowledge of the problem. Integration was shown from the individuals' own perspective who -however having a developed linguistic competence- found out reading as a way of compensating the cultural deficiency caused by deafness. Conclusions: the results obtained help the construction of a new identity in this group of persons. Such identity defined neither from the deficit nor from its rejection, but from the desire to be part of the hearing majority culture; however, this does not mean they have to abandon the minority culture they belong to. Inclusion in Spanish speaking people's culture -as in this case- is only possible if usage has been acquired because this is the only way to share social meanings built up inside a linguistic community. Writing and reading are effective strategies for deaf people to participate in their fellow men different language related living forms