Editor's introduction

This brief report of part of the data from a large-scale survey of teachers of the deaf by researchers at the Gallaudet Center of Assessment and Demographic Studies provides some information on teacher background variables that confirms otherwise anecdotal evidence, revealing the extreme homogeneity of teachers of the deaf and raising the issue of teachers as cultural role models. Woodward, Allen, and Schildroth looked at data on 609 elementary school teachers of the deaf, 85% of whom turn out to be hearing females. Using an ingeniously designed questionnaire, they were able to collect data on the teachers' classroom language characteristics. In addition to direct questions about language use, they provided a sample English sentence and asked the respondents to indicate, morpheme by morpheme, which elements they would include manually, either by fingerspelling, or by separate or inclusive sign. From the answers to these questions, the authors could deduce what language or sign system (if any) the teachers used. Not one of the teachers reported using ASL as a primary means of communication in the classroom. Nearly 60% used simultaneous communication and over 40% used no signs at all. The distribution of language use varied according to the kind of school, with more signing being used in the special schools. The authors infer from these data that deaf children are exposed largely to Hearing cultural role models, except in residential or day schools for the Deaf, and thus that an assimilationist approach dominates education of the Deaf.