Session Information
04 SES 07 C, Inclusive Pedagogy and Literacy
Paper Session
Time:
2009-09-29
15:30-17:00
Room:
NIG, HS C
Chair:
Rune Sarromaa Hausstätter
Contribution
This study investigates literacy practices in ordinary classrooms where there are one or more students with severe hearing problems. Focus is on early literacy practices and how deaf and hard of hearing children are given opportunity to participate on equal terms with their hearing peers. On group level children with severe hearing problems exhibit poor reading and writing performance compared with their hearing peers. During the last five years there has been an increase of deaf children attending their local school. Many schools have no previous experience with deaf or hard of hearing children, and there is a lack of documentation about how the schools manage the task of providing good education for the deaf child. The new Education Reform of 2006 has raised the standards for reading and mathematics profiency with the aim of improving Norway's result in the PISA, PIRLS and TIMMS assesments. This study investigates how teachers mangage the tension between producing overall high student results and the challenge of inclusion in a classroom where students have varying degrees of language proficiency. The design of the study is based on action research principles with teachers as co-researchers. Through video-based observation in ten different classrooms the researchers together with the teachers try to identify and discuss situations of ‘best practice’. The research question is: "How do teachers with a deaf child in the class identify and describe ‘best practice’ related to early literacy activities in their classrooms?"
The study is based on socio-cultural approaches to literacy and aims at studying literacy in context. The analytical framework on literacy is based on theories by J.P Gee (2008). Language as cultural communication is central in Gee’s approach, and the signing deaf child’s vulnerable position in the mainstream classroom is discussed within this paradigm. Cummins (2000) theories on language and power relations are also utilised.
The findings will be discussed in light of international research on deaf children and literacy as well as research on deaf children and inclusion The move towards mainstreaming of students with special needs is an explicit aim for all countries who have signed the Salamanca Statement and the findings will be of general interest in light of the common European goals of lifelong leraning and democratic participation for all (Garm 2005).
Method
Five preschools and five primary schools are selected. The main research method for data collection is videotaped classroom observations. The design is based on action research principles and the observations are analysed by teachers and researchers in cooperation. Teachers are then brought together in groups to discuss their criteria of what constitutes 'best practice'. The project started in january 2008 and will run for three years. By September 2009 all video-observations are finished and preliminary analyses are ready. Group discussions among teachers will take place during fall 2009.
Expected Outcomes
It is expected that participation in the project will increase teachers reflections on their practice and thus their competence, an acceptable outcome for an action research project. The criteria that the practioners value will be brought into discussion with earlier research findings. The findings may inform the general debate on inclusion for vulnerable group of students and the aims of national excellence on the international arena.
References
Gee,J. P. (2008).Social Lingustics and Literacies. Routledge Cummins, J. (2005). Power and Language. Garm, N. (2005). What is inclusion actually about?
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.