Browsing by Subject "disability education"

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    Career construction and support of D/deaf high school learners in the Eastern Cape Province
    (2021) Stemela, Unati; Kathard, Harsha; Sefotho, Maximus
    D/deaf people typically are not employed, or work in menial jobs, although they have been through high1 school in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The researcher has not observed them in professional careers. However, there is no empirical evidence why the D/deaf are excluded from the formal labour market after schooling. Understanding the underlying factors influencing such observations was important. The problem manifested in unemployment in the formal labour sector, but the researcher wanted to understand the root cause of this problem in depth. The aim of the study is to explore and critically analyse the D/deaf high school learners' construction of their careers and the supports available to them in constructing and realising their career aspirations. The international literature reviewed identifies knowledge gaps concerning career construction and supportive imperatives of D/deaf high school learners. The theory of career construction by Savickas (2005) frames this study and has been used throughout to guide and inform the study. This is a descriptive qualitative case study of career construction and support (Creswell, 2013). It was conducted in two of the five schools for the Deaf in two districts of the Eastern Cape. The learners came from rural, semi-rural and semi-urban homes. The schools (rural and semirural) were purposefully selected to participate in the study. The study population includes four participant groups; the deaf learners in high school (grade 10 -12), their parents, the teachers involved in the career guidance of the learners and members of the Department of Basic Education who were responsible for career guidance in deaf high schools. The data was collected using multiple methods: focus group discussions, individual interviews and document reviews. The findings indicate that careers are constructed under adverse conditions. These lead to learners' perceptions of limited support. The challenges with learning the school curriculum was a barrier to acquiring basic skills required for their careers. The challenges include an inability to use of South African Sign Language, a critical barrier affecting communication across participants (learners, teachers, Department of Education officials and parents). This impacted on teaching, learning, support, guidance and general communication. The contextual challenges and limited support structures negatively influence the way D/deaf high school learners in the Eastern Cape Province construct their future careers, their parents, the education system and the role played by organisations of Deaf people. The study shows that careers are constructed in a context of both positive and negative influences. The combination of both the negative influences and limited supports impacts more heavily on career construction than do the positive influences. D/deaf people in the Eastern Cape have limited opportunities to obtain employment in professional occupations because of the way the education system and society prepares them for such careers. The issues of colonialism and the previous apartheid regime still influence both the education system and the South African society.
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    TEDI 2 Week 2 - Interview: Facilitating Development in the Deaf Learner
    (2019-06-01) Hille, Jeanette; Swift, Odette
    In this video, Odette Swift interviews Jeanette Hille on the role of teachers of deaf children in facilitating the social and emotional development of deaf children in the classroom. She discusses the teacher’s pivotal role in building the deaf child’s self-esteem and provides tips on how to do so. She underscores first hand experiences and for constant communication between school and home as valuable for deaf learners. This video lecture 7/11 of week 2 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 2 - Interview: Facilitating Effective Language and Communication
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette; Hlayisi, Vera-Genevey
    In this video, Odette Swift once more, interviews the very eloquent Vera-Genevey Hlayisi who discusses how language and communication development can be facilitated in classrooms. She begins by cautioning teachers to beware of the subtle but important regional differences in Sign Language as in any other language and advises that teachers should consider these as they interact with deaf learners. She then discusses ways of facilitating communication between parents and their deaf children. This video lecture 11/11 of week 2 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 2 - Interview: Personal Experiences of Barriers to Learning
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette; Kotze, Elnette
    In this video, Odette Swift invites Elnette Kotze, to share her insights and experiences as a Deaf child in the classroom. Elnette discusses her mainly positive childhood experiences at home and school but also mentions the cruelty of some learners towards her. She talks about how her experiences have informed her work as an occupational therapist. She also talks about the invisibility of hearing impairment and the consequent false assumptions people make. This video lecture 9/11 of week 2 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 2 - The Deaf Child's Language and Communication
    (2019-06-01) Hlayisi, Vera-Genevey
    In this video, Odette Swift interviews Vera-Genevey Hlayisi, an audiologist and lecturer at UCT who elaborately responds to questions relating to language and communication for deaf children. She explains how language mismatch negatively influences a deaf child’s understanding of what is taught in class and the consequent knock-on effect on their academic performance. Discussing the different linguistic demands of deaf learners and their hearing peers, she highlights the role of audiologists and language therapists in assisting the teacher to identify adaptations and support mechanisms that s/he can use to facilitate learning for deaf children. This video lecture 10/11 of week 2 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 2 - Understanding Additional Barriers to Learning
    (2019-06-01) Kotze, Elnette
    In this video, Elnette Kotze talks from her lived experience vantage point. She begins by pre-empting challenges and feelings that teachers of deaf children may face and experience respectively but quickly allays their fears by proposing strategies of handling these. She also discusses the intrinsic and extrinsic barriers that deaf children may experience and offers practical tips on what teachers can do to minimize or overcome the barriers. This video lecture 8/11 of week 2 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Assessment Adaptations for the Deaf Child
    (2019-06-01) McKinney, Emma
    In this video, Emma McKinney, uses a real life scenario to bring to the fore, the challenges that deaf learners are likely to face with assessments. She explains the raison d’etre of assessments and underscores the fact that learners with congenital and acquired hearing loss will have different learning needs, hence different adaptation needs for assessments. She discusses a plethora of considerations that should inform teachers’ choices of adaptations and accommodations for each deaf child. She further shares common practices teachers can adopt to provide deaf learners with fair and valid assessment opportunities. This video lecture 7/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Assistive Devices used by Deaf Children
    (2019-06-01) Nwanze, Ikechukwu
    In this video, Ikechukwu Nwanze, lecturer at the Disability Studies Division UCT, effortlessly discusses basic assistive devices and how teachers can use these in lesson adaptations. He makes the distinction between low and high tech and stresses on the need for individual needs to be the determinant of which device to use. This video lecture 9/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Interview: Adapting Teaching Methods and Assessments
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette; McKinney, Emma
    In this video, Odette Swift interviews the very experienced Emma McKinney who excitedly shares first hand experiences of teaching and assessment adaptations. She highlights her propensity for research and interaction with fellow educators and her use of the bilingual-bicultural approach as her modus operandi for developing practical strategies for teaching and assessing deaf learners. From drama to games, Emma discusses how these strategies ensure that her deaf learners have access to the curriculum and meaningfully participate in her lessons. This video lecture 8/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Interview: Implementing Language Adaptations
    (2019-06-01) Kuhn, Tara
    In this video, Tara Kuhn eloquently makes the distinction between adaptations and modifications and focuses on those that may be needed to meaningfully include the deaf learner. Making use of visual aids, she provides very practical strategies to help signing children access the curriculum and understand concepts taught in class. She encourages teachers to be ingenious and think of practical methods that would work in their contexts. This video lecture 4/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Interview: Practical Classroom Modifications
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette; Kotze, Elnette
    In this video, Odette Swift interviews the well informed Elnette Kotze, an Occupational Therapist, who shares her expertise on teaching deaf learners. Elnette effortlessly, discusses a plethora of modifications that teachers can make in their classes and in their lessons to ensure that teaching and learning practices are accessible to deaf learners. This video lecture 3/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Language Adaptations for the Deaf Child
    (2019-06-01) Kuhn, Tara
    In this video, Tara Kuhn eloquently makes the distinction between adaptations and modifications and focuses on those that may be needed to meaningfully include the deaf learner. Making use of visual aids, she provides very practical strategies to help signing children access the curriculum and understand concepts taught in class. She encourages teachers to be ingenious and think of practical methods that would work in their contexts. This video lecture 4/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Modifying the Learning Environment
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette
    In this video, the very cheerful Odette Swift, herself a teacher of deaf children, discusses basic modifications and adaptations that teachers can make in their own classrooms to ensure that deaf learners have access to all subject content. This video lecture 2/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Teaching Method Adaptations for the Deaf Child
    (2019-06-01) McKinney, Emma
    In this video, Emma McKinney, lecturer and researcher in the fields of education and disability studies, discusses teaching method adaptations for deaf children. Focusing on teaching English, avoiding fatigue, adapting the curriculum and adjusting for individual differences, Emma in her characteristic lightning speed, prescribes the bilingual-bicultural approach to teaching deaf children and poses thought-provoking questions which will guide teachers in making their teaching practices accessible for children who are deaf. This video lecture 6/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 4 - Collaborating with Teaching Assistants
    (2019-06-01) Mohamed, Jabaar
    In this video, Jabaar Mohamed, Provincial Director of DeafSA, talks about the importance of team work and how the teacher and the teaching assistant can work collaboratively. Quoting Article 24 of the UNCRPD, he reminds participants about the role of schools in facilitating the learning of sign language and promoting the linguistic identity of the Deaf Community. He says teaching assistants usually act as role models for Deaf children who may never have had one in their lives. He then highlights the need for the teacher and the teaching assistant to understand their roles and duties and carry them out diligently in the interest of the leaners. This is video lecture 5/8 of week 4 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 4 - Cultivating Positive Change
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette; Kuhn, Tara
    In this video, Odette Swift and Tara Kuhn, happily share three levels of positive change that educators should focus on – personal, professional and systemic. They call on teachers to reflect on their own areas of strengths and weaknesses. They counsel teachers to constantly reflect on their attitudes towards deaf learners and their abilities and provide them with the best learning opportunities because it is their right to receive quality education. Reflecting on these and keeping abreast with what is happening in the area of deaf education internationally, they say, will help teachers think of how they can change or maximise these for the better. This is video lecture 8/8 of week 4 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 4 - Interview: Becoming an Empowered Teacher
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette; Rutter, Cindy
    Odette Swift speaks to the very experienced Cindy Rutter who doubles as teacher and principal of Dominican School for Deaf Children in Cape Town. With many years of deaf education experience and lots of insights in teaching deaf children, Cindy shares a plethora of strategies that teachers can use to empower themselves. From carrying out intense diary teaching focusing on language acquisition, conducting research, observing more experienced colleagues, to team and group teaching, Cindy impressively offers teachers an array of strategies to add to their repertoires and carries on with the themes of collaboration highlighted earlier on by Judy and Jabaar. She encourages teachers to interact with the Deaf Community, and advises that teachers continue to learn all the time and never give up! This is video lecture 7/8 of week 4 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 4 - Learning from an Empowered Teacher
    (2019-06-01) Rutter, Cindy
    In this video, Cindy Rutter, a very empowered teacher and principal of Dominican School for Deaf Children in Cape Town, South Africa, shares her thoughts and experiences about the empowered teacher. She begins by signing a greeting and her name. Defining the word empowerment, she says it is achieved over time through trial and error, perseverance and determination. She highlights four crucial elements – attitude, skill, knowledge and creativity which are central to teacher empowerment and very effortlessly, explains how these can be achieved. This is video lecture 6/8 of week 4 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 4 - Mobilising Support
    (2019-06-01) McKenzie, Judith
    In this video Judy McKenzie discusses what support means and how to ensure that teachers/educators get the best support they need. She encourages teachers to collaborate either informally through communities of practice or formally through professional learning communities and school-based support teams. She defines what these mean and encourages educators to continue to explore online resources to build their capacities. She says that teachers need to feel empowered to identify their own needs. This is video lecture 3/8 of week 4 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    TEDI 2 Week 4 - Taking Care of Yourself
    (2019) Couper, Jacqui
    In this video, Jacqui Couper stresses on the need for educators to take care of themselves because it is only when they do this that they will be able to care for and teach the children, as well as positively interact with colleagues and parents of the children. Using an analogy of plants and a water can Jacqui foregrounds the need for teachers to constantly refill their energies through healthy life styles in order to cope with the exigencies of teaching and avoiding burnout. She then elaborately discusses how teachers can do so. This video lecture 2/5 of week 4 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.