Residential Education Dichotomy

Many students with disabilities are mistreated based on things beyond their disorders. Both Catherine A O’Brien and Peggy Placier wanted to study and analyze an important part of social justice approaches to schooling. The study was investigating the struggle that many minority students faced based on their racial, ethnic, and linguistics in deaf residential schools. Through extensive research both O’Brien and Placier decide to further understand and explain the many discourses about students in a state-run residential school for the Deaf based on the deficit-difference dichotomy created by Foley, which serves “as an explanation for failures in school and life, was first based on genetics and then later linked to the anthropological theory …show more content…
Many hearing teachers as well as hearing parents saw their child disorders as something that needing to be fixed they thought that the child’s deafness as a “condition to be corrected” (p. 242). The point of the study was change the negative connation that student’s cultural and ethnic backgrounds were causing them to fail; into the idea that you could actually use their backgrounds to bring their success into fruition. Since it was understood that the staff in state-run residential schools for the deaf already had “cant do” and “can do” attitude when it came to the capabilities of the Deaf students. O’Brien and Placier asked questions of the staff to see if the stigmas was coming from that of a positional or personal identity background. This way they would be able to help the school systems …show more content…
They all shared the feeling of being Deaf and because of that they wanted to encourage the students to do better and try harder, O’Brien shares a moment she remembers of one of the Deaf teachers telling the students a story about the ““The Little Engine That Could.” After the story, he explained how he modified the sign “can’t” by signing it backwards to make a point that one has to undo “can’t” thinking.” He explained that he wanted his students to feel capable of anything. While the hearing staff and faculty had an attitude of “can’t do” towards their students Placier found that many of the hearing staff would use words like “they” and “cant” a lot during her interviews because they did not see their students or colleagues as the able or on the same level as them intellectually. For many hearing staff Deafness was seen as a different culture apart from them. Many would speak as if they would have to be the best of the best in the deaf community just to fit. To close O’Brien and Placier stated that in order for residential schools for the deaf to maintain a positive community they would need to make sure that everyone was fully engaged into the community. Thus everyone would have compassion for one another and be transparent across the board with no prejudice toward