Cultural and linguistic diverse deaf learners: Overcoming the hidden curriculum

Kate Crowe has been invited as a keynote speaker at the Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf Conference to be held Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in September. The topic of the presentation is Cultural and linguistic diverse deaf learners: Overcoming the hidden curriculum. She is co-presenting with Professor Greg Leigh, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children/The University of Newcastle.

There are high levels of cultural and linguistic diversity among learners with hearing loss in Australia and around the world. Such diversity requires educational agendas, services, and professionals who are inclusive, socially just, and skilled in working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Such an approach requires all aspects of education to acknowledge and accommodate many different possible cultural identities of learners and to foster their acquisition and use of languages concordant with those identities. The cultural competency of professionals who work with learners with hearing loss must encompass (a) knowledge about, and sensitivity to, the issues that may arise in teaching and learning contexts; and (b) undertake rigorous and continuous examination of their own attitudes, values, and beliefs in regard to people from other cultures and linguistic backgrounds. If left unexamined or taken for granted, values and attitudes across any or all of these areas may create a hidden curriculum — unplanned and unrecognized teaching and learning of beliefs, norms, and cultural mores that reflect the cultural or ideological perspective of teachers or other professionals. This presentation deals briefly with these issues and considers their importance in educational settings and strategies and resources for approaching the education of culturally and linguistically diverse learners with hearing loss.