Content area
Full text
THE STANDARD EPISTEMOLOGY requires the use of hard science to gain knowledge and discover the truth. In contrast, Deaf epistemology relies heavily on personal testimonies, personal experiences, and personal accounts to document knowledge. In recent years, a number of deaf schools have adopted deaf-centric policies shaped by Deaf epistemology in an effort to improve academic performance of deaf students. Because of federal laws, all schools are now expected to show accountability in the performance of their students, with data becoming increasingly available for public scrutiny. The preliminary data from three well-known deaf schools are beginning to show that the effectiveness of deaf-centric approaches can be substantiated by the standard epistemology. For this reason, Deaf epistemology and the standard epistemology should not always be viewed as having an oxymoronic relationship.
Epistemology has been defined in many different ways. All the definitions basically boil down to three aspects of knowledge - belief, truth, and justification. In a nutshell, epistemology addresses the question, How do we know what we know? In the case of the Deaf world and the field of deaf education, what constitutes true beliefs, or justified beliefs? One goal of epistemology is to determine the criteria for knowledge so that we can know what can or cannot be known. For Deaf epistemology, this begs the question, What are the criteria for knowledge that are crucial for deaf education?
To better address the issue of Deaf epistemology, it might be helpful to focus on the epistemologies of various minority, oppressed, or disenfranchised communities such as feminist epistemology, African American/Black epistemology, and queer/gay epistemology. Epistemologies of minority, oppressed, or otherwise disenfranchised groups usually focus on opposing and rectifying oppression (Bakari, 1997; Wright, 2003). It has been argued that only members of such groups can acquire knowledge on the truth associated with their cultural beliefs and experiences. In this sense, the epistemology of the minority consists of theories of knowledge created by members, about members' modes of knowing, for the purpose of liberating members (Anderson, 1995; Bakari, 1997; Koertge, 1996; Ladd, 2008). Similarly, it has been the perspective of some deaf1 leaders that the quality of deaf education can be improved only when justified beliefs and knowledge vis à vis Deaf epistemology are better understood and embraced (J....