Education Commons^™

Not A Hearing Loss, A Deaf Gain: Power, Self-Naming, And The Deaf Community, David J. Thomas

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Self-naming has long stood as the primary assertion of power for disenfranchised communities in the western world. While person first language (e.g. person who is deaf) has been the preferred language of disability and disability services for the last 20 years, members of the Deaf community have asserted their cultural capital, and indeed, their Deafhood, or defining the experience of being ‘deaf in the world’, through the power of self-naming. This research examines attitudes toward language, self-naming, and disability in the Deaf community and seeks to move toward a more attentive, sensitive, and responsive language policy in the academy.

Historically, …

Transforming The Curriculum, The Mission Statement, The Strategic Goals: A Success Story, Nancy Topping Bazin

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

Old Dominion University, a state university in Norfolk, Virginia, enrolling approximately 16,000 students, has successfully established the goal of achieving diversity in what is taught, who does the teaching, and who is being taught. Since 1986, faculty have had to include the perspectives, contributions, and concerns of women, minorities, and/or non-Western cultures¹ in courses that fulfill general education requirements. The university's mission statement and its strategic goals emphasize curriculum transformation and the attraction of more women and male minorities into the faculty and student body. In its 1989 report, the Virginia Commission on the University of the 21st Century …