Chapter 2: Deaf Culture and Education: Toward a Culturally Relevant Leadership

Students with disabilities have two primary legal protections in the United States: the right to a free and appropriate public education, and the right of being included “to the maximum extent appropriate” in the general education classroom. Missing from these mandates is a clear definition of all key terms and any guidance on implementation. Importantly, this is also only a legal framework for approaching the education of students with disabilities—it does not address culture, and incorrectly frames them using deficit thinking. In this chapter, we argue that it is important to understand the experiences of students, particularly deaf students, not in terms of disability, but through culture. We explore the intersection of Deaf culture,¹ Deaf education, and also culturally relevant leadership. The last of these recognizes emerging scholarship that acknowledges the importance of leadership in relation to both culture and learning. Further, there is little research related to urban minority deaf youth and how Deaf culture and culturally relevant leadership might impact the education of these students. The remaining part of the chapter describes Deaf culture, culturally relevant leadership, and schooling for deaf students from minority urban populations. The oppression or exclusion encountered by deaf students is the lack of common language that is shared among all parties and the insensitivity of hearing teachers and peers. We hope that this work will both raise awareness of these issues and begin to suggest new ways of conceptualizing leadership in relation to Deaf education.