Dissertation Dedication and Acknowledgements

On December 9, 2022, I successfully defended my dissertation and became Dr. Givens. The title of my dissertation is "Self-Efficacy and Mentoring Experiences Among Administrators of Deaf Schools." Receiving my EdD has been a long journey, and so many people have supported me along the way. I thank them in my dissertation and wanted to publicly share it here. Thank you for reading!

Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to my husband and children. Darrell, thank you for believing in me and supporting every outlandish professional dream I have ever had. I would not be the educator I am today if not for you! Thank you to my beautiful daughters - Maya, Brooklyn, Jasmine, and Savannah - for being patient whenever I had to take time away from them to focus on my career and doctoral journey. You are my light and my reason for wanting to do and be better. I am so proud to be your mom!

I also dedicate this to my current and former students and their parents. My students make me a better teacher each and every day. I would not be the educator I am today if not for them entering my life and inspiring me to give it my all every day. Thank you to their parents who entrust me with their children and allow me the opportunity to let their children shine. Raising a deaf child is not easy, and I appreciate being a part of your child’s life and helping to raise them together.

Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to the Deaf community for always challenging me to do better and calling me out when needed. My allyship will forever be a work in progress, and I continue to learn and grow each day because of you. I am honored and humbled to share the deaf education space with so many formidable deaf educators and deaf administrators. I tip my hat to you!

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to acknowledge those in my life who made this dissertation possible. First, thank you to my dissertation chair, Dr. Luke Smith, who guided me through this journey and answered all my questions along the way. Thank you to my committee - Dr. Scott Van Nice, Dr. Ryan Luke, and Dr. Karla Hargis - for providing your wisdom and guidance. And thank you to Dr. Joy Levine for respecting my request to have deaf representation on my committee and granting me a fourth committee member.

Thank you to my Twitter professional network, especially the deaf scholars. They have been incredibly supportive and helpful whenever I had questions, could not find a source, or just needed to vent. A special thank you goes to these deaf scholars who supported me through this journey: Dr. Jon Henner for providing guidance and recommendations for theoretical frameworks; Dr. Octavian Robinson for reviewing my history of deaf education section and providing valuable insight; and especially to Dr. Michael Skyer for being my informal mentor, reviewing my chapters, and answering 1,000 questions. I really could not have done this without you, Michael! Thank you, Lauren Maucere, Dr. Stephanie Cawthon, Dr. Leala Holcomb, and Dr. Julie Rems-Smario for providing critical feedback on the ASL versions of my recruitment letter and informed consent and to Dr. Jodi Falk for reviewing my recruitment invitation email from an administrator’s perspective.

            I am indebted to the deaf school executive leaders who saw my research's importance and granted their administrators permission to participate. A special thank you to all the administrators who took time out of their hectic schedules to participate in my study.

            Thank you to the parents who make the tough choice and sacrifice to send their children to deaf schools; to the educators, support staff, and administrators who work at deaf schools; and to the decision-makers who understand how critical deaf schools are to the education of deaf children.

Finally, thank you to the protestors who love deaf schools and fight for their future! Don’t ever stop fighting!

From Hearing Loss to Deaf Gain

These past few weeks, I have been learning about Deaf Gain because it is the overarching theoretical framework for my dissertation. If you are not familiar, Deaf Gain challenges the concept of ‘normalcy’ and seeing deaf people through a deficit lens. Under Deaf Gain, deaf is viewed as visual and cognitive diversity, as offering linguistic, cultural, and creative contributions to humanity. It forces one to think of all the good deaf people have done and will do in society, and to end thinking of deaf people as in need of fixing, of remediation.

One quote is notable and is one that we all in deaf education and in society at large need to reflect on and embrace.

"'Hearing loss' refers to the loss that hearing people experience by not being open to the benefits, contributions, and advances that arise through deaf ways of being."  (Bauman & Murray, 2014, p. xxxvii)

Just think about this quote.

Often, the term hearing loss is used as a PC way to identify a deaf person. However, it asserts that a deaf person has lost something, lost the ability to hear. It assumes that being able to hear is ‘normal’. Why? Who decides what is normal?

In the mid-1800s, scientists decided to categorize humans by their physical attributes using a bell curve. All those within the curve were considered normal. Everyone else…you get the point. This concept of normalcy is ingrained in our education system and in society.

Over the centuries, deaf people have been labeled by hearing society using deficit terms: deaf and dumb, deaf-mute, hearing impaired, hearing loss. ‘Deaf’ is even used derogatorily in many English phrases: fall on deaf ears, turned a deaf ear, etc.

It is us, hearing society, who embrace ‘hearing loss’ when we do not acknowledge deaf ways of being, Deaf culture, sign languages, deaf world. As a society, we need end impairing ourselves.

Instead of continuing to marginalize deaf people, let’s embrace them as whole beings, as humans without any deficits. They are diverse people who have a value equal to every hearing person on the planet. 

We all need to embrace Deaf Gain in our education system, in our diversity, equity, and inclusion work, in how we discuss intersectionality, in how we try to end discrimination.

We need to give deaf people a seat at the table. 

Better yet, let’s give the Deaf community the seat at the head of the table!

(Yes, in this post I use ‘deaf’ as an umbrella term to refer to and respect all deaf individuals regardless of hearing levels, language and communication preferences, and cultural differences)

Information from this post came from the following articles:

Bauman, H. D., & Murray, J. (2009). Reframing: From hearing loss to deaf gain. Deaf Studies Digital Journal, 1(1), 1-10.

Bauman, H. D. L., & Murray, J. J. (2010). Deaf studies in the 21st century: “Deaf-gain” and the future of human diversity. In M. Marschark, & P.E. Spencer (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, and education, vol. 2. (pp. 210-225). Oxford University Press

Bauman, H. D. L., & Murray, J. J. (Eds.). (2014). Deaf gain: Raising the stakes for human diversity. U of Minnesota Press.

Murray, J. (2016). Deaf gain. In G. Gertz, & P. Boudreault (Eds.), The sage deaf studies encyclopedia (pp. 187-189). SAGE Publications, Inc, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483346489.n65