Home Institution

University of Arkansas

Publication Date

Fall 2011

Program Name

Spain: Language, Community, and Social Change

Abstract

I had the good fortune to be able to volunteer with deaf students at the Centro Ave Maria San Cristóbal high school in the Albayzin, close to my own school. Every Tuesdays and Thursdays I would enter the classroom and spend time with Cecilia, the director of the Deaf Program, and Anabel, a twenty year old hardworking student. I met about ten deaf students in all, and spent substantial time with three of them. My father is deaf and my mother is an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter, so for this reason whenever I came to Spain I wanted to incorporate my history into the community project I would be volunteering with. Luckily I was able to be involved with the Deaf School in the Albayzin. The majority of the information for my paper came directly from first hand interviews and experiences throughout my volunteer service, supplemented by additional research on Deaf life in Spain. I will go over a brief history of Spanish Deafhood and then discuss several important issues within Deaf education. It was an enriching and at times confusing experience to juggle learning Spanish and Spanish Sign Language (LSE) at the same time. At any given point, I had four languages swirling around in my head, English, American Sign Language, Spanish, and Spanish Sign Language. By the end of this semester I have cultivated an appreciation for each distinct language and their intricacies.

Disciplines

Disability and Equity in Education | Educational Sociology | Family, Life Course, and Society | International and Comparative Education

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