Understanding and Reimagining Deaf/Bilingual Education in Mexico: Toward Expanding and Decolonizing Deaf Worlds

• In Event: 28.076 - New Directions in Postcolonial Studies and Education

Abstract

The San Gabriel School for the Deaf is a bilingual school for the deaf that uses Mexican Sign Language (LSM) and Spanish as the languages of instruction. Drawing from qualitative data, we found multiple actors in conflict and working in concert, with white people from the U.S. funding the school often at odds with the Mexican-hired Child of Deaf Adults who worked as the principal, generally on behalf of advocating for Deaf students and Deaf culture. Our findings indicated the presence of a colonial legacy, decolonial aspirations, and (de)colonial sites of struggle. We conclude with implications for increased trans-disciplinarity between bilingual and deaf education research, and our decolonial vision of deafness which includes liberation despite colonial histories.

Authors

• G. Sue Kasun, Georgia State University

• Jessica Scott, Georgia State University

• Jyoti Hanagud Kaneria